


The Answer to Some Things

by MeganRosenberg



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Attempted Rape, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Attempted Sexual Assault, Blood and Gore, Daryl Dixon & Glenn Rhee Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Glenn Rhee Lives, Hurt Glenn Rhee, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapped, Kidnapping, Merle Dixon Being an Asshole, Merle Dixon Lives, Nice Merle Dixon, Protective Merle Dixon, Sexual Assault, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Threats of Violence, Violence, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-11 20:55:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 54,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11722383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganRosenberg/pseuds/MeganRosenberg
Summary: Glenn Rhee, a lone survivor in the zombie apocalypse, comes across a rough and dangerous group of survivors which includes Merle and Daryl Dixon. It's not a group he fits into well, but they will not let him leave, so he learns to live with them, learns which of the group are worthy of his trust, and forms some unlikely friendships with some members of the group while fighting to keep his distance from others.





	1. Target Practice

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published to ff.net Nov 2015-March 2016. Re-posted here with minor edits.
> 
> This is a sort of alternate universe story where Glenn, Daryl, and Merle never meet Shane, Rick, Dale, Andrea and the rest in season one. Furthermore, Glenn, Daryl, and Merle are their season one-selves, so expect Daryl and Merle to be a little rough and Glenn to be a little less tough than he is in later seasons.

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Chapter 1

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Glenn cautiously made his way through the convenience store, careful to keep quiet as he walked from one aisle to the next, filling his back pack with supplies as he went. It was well-past time he got himself out of Atlanta, as by now it was overrun with the walking dead, or 'geeks' as he commonly called them. He'd been in the city long enough, had narrowly avoided death one too many times, and had decided now was the time for him to move on.

He was lucky he had survived in Atlanta this long. Considering how populated the city was, and considering large portions of the place had actually been bombed and/or burned to the ground in an attempt to control the ever-growing zombie problem, the fact that anyone alive remained on the streets was a miracle. Whoever had bombed and burned the city didn't seem to have cared to check any of the buildings for survivors beforehand. By now even the professionals had given up on the world. No one was looking out for anyone else. Not anymore.

Somehow Glenn had managed to stay lucky, had avoided being caught up in any of the fires, and had thus far avoided becoming a human snack. Traveling alone (although not entirely by choice) and being as agile and informed of the city's streets as he was helped Glenn stay alive this long, but he had a sick feeling in the back of his mind that his luck wasn't going to last much longer. It seemed he had been living his life on the edge ever since this whole mess started, and he needed to get someplace safer soon before his lifestyle literally came back to bite him.

A recent encounter with one of the re-animated corpses had finally prompted him to move along and get himself out of the city for good. Just last night, as Glenn had been searching for his old friend and former co-worker, Ethan, he'd nearly gotten himself killed. Of course, Glenn was quick, stealthy, and smart. That's how he'd survived this long, but he'd let his guard down at the worst possible moment, and it had almost cost him his life.

He'd found Ethan, alright... And Ethan's older brother Perry, and a few other people Glenn hadn't ever met. They were all at Ethan's apartment, and they were all dead, yet still up and walking around. Glenn had knocked on the door, heard their footsteps, and went ahead and let himself in. He was just so eager to finally see a familiar face after weeks of being on his own. But his excitement had been drained instantly when he realized the only familiar faces he was going to come across were no longer his friends, but instead flesh-eating monsters.

While Glenn was distracted by seeing Ethan's dead eyes fixated on him as the young man staggered toward him, Perry had come out of nowhere and snapped his rotten teeth toward Glenn's arm, just barely missing him, and thus just barely sparing Glenn from being done for.

So now the former-pizza delivery boy was through with this city. Atlanta was dead, both figuratively and literally. He figured he might as well give up on finding anyone he knew. And it seemed like he could go ahead and give up on finding anyone he didn't know as well. Not anyone alive anyway. He had woken early in the morning, left the relative safety of the office building he had set up camp in, and made his way down to some of the shops, hoping to find a good amount of supplies to sustain him until he found a safer place to live.

He figured if he found a car, he could make his way toward his former home. Maybe he could find his family. But maybe he didn't want to find them. Not if they were only going to be like Ethan. If Glenn never found them, maybe he could keep believing they were alive out there somewhere...

He stuffed a few packets of instant noodles into his backpack and made his way toward the back of the store, where bottled water was usually kept. There probably wouldn't be any left. Most of the stores were pretty-well cleared out weeks ago. It was honestly quite amazing the instant noodles were still on the shelf, though the two Glenn had managed to snatch were the only two left.

Glenn sighed internally and allowed his shoulders to slump when he looked over the selection of drinks, which was by now comprised of several knocked-over bottles of soda, two of which had bullet holes in them. He shook his head slightly to himself. He needed to have his hands free, just in case he ran into anything unsavory out on the streets, and the bottles were too large and heavy to fit into his backpack. He could always look for water somewhere else later, as he presently had a mostly-full canteen which he'd found on a dead man a few weeks prior and had ben refilling with clean water any time he got the chance to.

When Glenn was confident that his bag was pretty much as full as it was going to get, he hefted it up on his back and carefully made his way toward the store's glass door, which was now only a door-frame, with most of the glass shattered on the floor nearby. He stepped carefully over the glass, making as little noise possible until he could peek outside the door-frame and look up and down the street. A single geek was pacing in the street down the road to his right, but if he went left and was quick about it, that one wouldn't be a problem. Of course, he had no idea what he'd encounter that way, and it was always good to have a backup travel plan these days.

Glenn stepped outside, gripping his baseball bat tightly in his hand as he walked slowly down the center of the road, all the while looking all around himself. After all, he hadn't stayed alive this long on luck alone.

Once he was in the middle of the street, and no longer anywhere near any doors, windows, or alleys Glenn heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire ringing out from somewhere too close for comfort, echoing loudly down the hollow streets. He wasn't sure which direction it had come from, but he could hear that it was definitely very close.

With his heart thudding in his chest, Glenn cowered down slightly as he looked around himself. The single geek which had been roaming around down the street was on the ground now, unmoving. Someone had shot it. But that someone was nowhere to be seen. Glenn briefly glanced up toward the rooftops, but saw no one. He wondered if whoever had shot the zombie had seen him...

Glenn wasn't sure how to handle this situation. Hearing gunfire in the city was not at all uncommon, but it wasn't usually so close, and the few times it had been, the person or people making the sound always revealed themselves. Glenn had even joined a pair of women early on after coming across them in the city. He had heard their gunfire and found them fending off zombies in an alley. Glenn had used his baseball bat to help them finish off the small army of geeks and had then been invited to join their group, which was comprised of only them at that point. Unfortunately, the two women had gone off on an errand to replenish some of their supplies some time later and hadn't ever returned, so Glenn had been forced to move on without them...

But this time, no one was coming forward as being the source of the gunfire. Maybe they hadn't seen Glenn.

Another shot rang out, followed by a thudding sound from an alley ahead of him. Whoever it was would have to be on a rooftop to have hit both a zombie in front of and behind Glenn. Hopefully they wouldn't mistake him for one. He wondered if he should call out so he wouldn't be mistaken for undead. Or perhaps he should just get out of the area as quickly as possible. After all, whoever was out there might not be one of the good guys. They were also making a hell of a lot of noise, and probably attracting more geeks.

Intaking a shaky breath, Glenn gripped his baseball bat and took a few more steps forward, looking up and to the left and right frequently, both to check for stray geeks as well as to hopefully make it apparent to anyone secretly observing him that he was in fact not one of the walking corpses.

Glenn flinched as yet another shot rang out, the sound bouncing off the buildings. This one was followed by the sound of a man's voice.

"Almost got 'im," the unknown person yelled, followed by deep, raspy laugh.

Glenn looked up toward the sound of the voice. He saw a flash of movement, but not enough to be sure he really even saw anything. Still, he didn't want to shout out to the unknown person, for fear of attracting too much attention.

Instead, Glenn abandoned the hope of finding anymore survivors. The fact that this person was shooting random walkers from the roof top when he didn't need to and was laughing while he did it made Glenn wonder if he'd really want to meet them at all. They seemed potentially dangerous. Glenn wasn't in the habit of making unnecessary noise or wasting bullets and preferred not to travel with anyone who was.

Another shot rang out, followed by the unmistakable sound of a body hitting pavement. He quickened his pace to a near jog as he made his way down the road. He needed to get away from this mess as soon as possible, before every geek in the city heard the noise and came running.

But Glenn's attempt at escape was short-lived. The next shot was most certainly not aimed at any of the walkers. In fact, he could swear he saw it bounce off the ground only a few yards ahead of him.

Glenn skidded to a stop, nearly tripping over his own feet. Was this person shooting at him? He looked up toward the spot where he had seen the movement before, raising his hands in surrender and squinting upward as the light of the sun nearly blinded him.

"I'm not dead!" Glenn yelled in a frantic voice. "I'm not one of them!"

Another shot rang out, this one just as close as the last one, ricocheting off the asphalt of the road way too close to his feet for comfort. The mysterious person, who Glenn still couldn't see through the blinding sunlight laughed once more.

Glenn cowered down slightly. "Stop shooting!" he pleaded. He held perfectly still, with his hands still up as he looked toward the roof. He still couldn't see anyone.

By now, Glenn couldn't help his frantic, nervous breaths as he kept his hands up and scanned the area with his eyes. There were a few more walkers in the distance now, some in both directions, stumbling down the street toward him. Just as he thought would happen, the sound had attracted them.

He looked back up toward the roof. There were no more gun shots, no more laughter, and no more foreign voices. Glenn tightened his grip on his baseball bat, bringing his hands slowly back down and gripping the weapon in both hands. He might need to take a few short cuts now, or rather alternate routes, as they wouldn't really be short cuts, but might at least spare him from running into the geeks now approaching him from both sides.

Glenn took a cautious step forward, looking up toward the roof as he did so. He wondered if the gunman was just messing with him. After all, he had hit a rather far away zombie without a problem a few minutes before. It seemed the building the mysterious shooter was atop was the one right next to Glenn. If this person had really wanted to hit him, it wouldn't have been hard to do so.

Each of Glenn's steps was slow and careful as he made his way forward and to the left, toward the nearest alley, keeping a close watch in any and all directions. As he neared the alley, his pace quickened. By now he was extremely eager to get out of here. It was bad enough having to worry about the walkers without having to worry that some crazy person on a rooftop would kill him just for the fun of it.

The closer to the wall he got, the faster Glenn's steps became. The mysterious person on the roof wouldn't be able to shoot at him if the wall was in the way. He would have to lean far over the wall for the proper angle, which meant Glenn would only need to worry about the walkers.

By now Glenn was running. The alley was up ahead. If he could just get out of the area, he would finally be safe. Or at least safer. At least the geeks never shot at him.

Not keeping with his usual tendency to cautiously approach any new area, Glenn rushed into the alley. He was far more fearful of being shot than of running into a stray walker, so he didn't even bother approaching the place slowly and cautiously as he ordinarily would have.

And of course, this was the time there ended up being someone there...

Glenn screamed and raised his baseball bat up over his head, ready to defeat the geek he'd nearly collided with. Before he had a chance to do so, however, it reached out and grabbed at him, gripping his baseball bat in a large, strong hand and easily prying it out of Glenn's grasp.

It was then that the boy realized that this was no walker he was up against. This person was very much alive. Glenn found himself looking up at an older man, probably in his late forties or early fifties. He had greyish stubble on his face and angry blue-grey eyes which stared down at him.

Glenn winced as the man tossed the bat to the side and slapped his large hand over Glenn's mouth, likely in an effort to silence the scream he'd accidentally let out. Glenn tried to speak, to tell this guy he was sorry for screaming, and maybe to plead for his life... but the hand was firmly clamped down over the lower half of his face.

"Shut yer damn mouth, boy, before you attract every damn walker in the city," the man growled.

Glenn did as instructed and the man finally moved his hand, but before Glenn had a chance to say anything, to question the guy or move to reclaim his bat, a large, firm hand was wrapped around Glenn's forearm and pulling him into a back door of the building he had been hoping to simply run around.

"Wait!" Glenn urged, frantically pulling at his arm and trying to free himself. The hand around his arm only tightened its grip. Why was this guy dragging him inside? Maybe he meant to steal Glenn's supplies... though he certainly hadn't been interested in the bat.

The stranger pulled him inside, letting the door slam behind them as he shoved Glenn's back up against the wall.

"Please don't kill me," Glenn spoke in an out-of-breath voice as he once again raised his hands in defense.

The older man looked down at him with an amused smirk on his face. "I ain't gonna kill you. I was just messin' with you before."

Glenn forced a nervous laugh. That wasn't quite as reassuring as this man seemed to think it was. Glenn's idea of a good joke certainly didn't involve nearly being shot.

"There any more of you little guys running around out there?" the stranger asked. "Looked like you was all alone..."

Glenn looked up at him. "I was alone," he said, immediately wondering if it had been wise to divulge that information. Now the guy knew nobody was going to come looking for Glenn if he never returned to where he came from. "I was on my way out of the city," Glenn added, to show this guy he wasn't interested in trying to infringe on any sort of territory he may have laid claim to.

"There's no reason to leave," the guy countered with a raspy laugh. "Ya look like you're a pretty capable guy... for an Asian, anyway. You can come join me an' my friends. How 'bout that?"

Glenn winced. The stranger still gripped his arms pretty tightly, holding him firmly in place up against the wall. While the man was seemingly inviting him to join his survivor group, it didn't feel as much like a question as an order.

"Okay," Glenn reluctantly went along with the suggestion, allowing the man to pull him along toward a shadowy set of stairs. "I'm Glenn," he offered his free hand, even though the guy was already tightly gripping his other arm.

With another smirk and a slight chuckle, the stranger turned toward him, grabbing his hand in an iron grip and shaking it firmly. "Merle," he introduced himself.

Glenn let out a shaky breath as he continued allowing Merle to lead him up the stairs. He didn't really have much of a choice. "How many are in your group?" Glenn wondered, mostly just trying to get the guy to talk so he could get a better read on him.

"Five," Merle responded simply as he dragged Glenn up the stairs.

"You guys living in the city then?" Glenn asked. "Is your group your family? Friends? Random people you met?" Hopefully the rest of this guy's group was a little more sane than he was. If just one guy in the group was a crazy person, he could deal with it. If all five were maniacs who enjoyed shooting at people for fun, he was going to need to find a quick way out of this situation.

"A few of each," Merle answered. "You'll meet 'em in a minute."

"Do you guys live in this building?" Glenn wondered as he looked around. It didn't look like an apartment building. It appeared to be a shop of some sort from down below, but maybe there were apartments on the upper floors.

"Can you stop with the damn questions?" Merle sounded agitated as he nearly shouted the request and even shook Glenn slightly by the arm as he said it.

"Sorry," Glenn winced. Merle's grip on his arm was tighter than ever, even though the younger man wasn't even trying to pull away anymore.

It wasn't long before they were all the way upstairs. Merle opened a door that led to the roof and pulled Glenn up with him. "Lookie what I found," Merle laughed as he pulled Glenn roughly along, shoving him forward in front of him.

"I told you that one wasn't dead," one of the other men commented.

"You didn't have ta tell me," Merle laughed. "I knew it. That's why I was aimin' in front of his feet. An' why I went down an' brought 'im back up with me. I was just playin' with 'im before." He glanced down toward Glenn who was beginning to feel more and more nervous by the second. "If I'd wanted to kill you, I'da done it."

Glenn forced a small, very insincere laugh allowing his eyes to move from one of the men to the next as he tried to judge whether they were all as big of a threat as the first one he'd met seemed to be. It seemed anyone traveling with this guy was probably not much more sane than Merle was.

It was very quickly made apparent that these men were in fact each just as threatening and ill-mannered as the last when, without even offering so much as an introduction, one of them reached out and roughly pulled Glenn's bag away from him. Glenn did not fight the man. In fact, he even willingly shrugged the bag off his shoulders so the man could take it and get away from him as soon as possible.

"What did ya bring us, little kid?" the man laughed as he began going through the bag. This man was even bulkier than Merle. He had a long, dark beard all the way down to the top of his chest, and wore a blue bandanna over a mess of long, ratty brown hair.

Glenn didn't answer. Instead, he took a step back toward the door, but Merle stopped him before he could get far.

"Why'd you bring him up here for?" Another of the men growled, looking toward Merle with a very annoyed expression on his face. This guy looked younger than Merle, but somehow similar as though they were related. He was muscular, just like the others, and wore a sleeveless shirt. He had a bit of stubble on his face as well.

"Just thought we could use another little friend," Merle laughed, pulling Glenn rather roughly by his arm so that he was uncomfortably close up against the older man's body. "What, you don't like 'im?"

Glenn swallowed a lump in his throat as he looked around the group. He was feeling rather trapped by this point, and was certainly quite afraid to try to move again. Merle was a rather large and muscular man, and could likely do a lot of damage if he wanted.

The guy in the sleeveless shirt shook his head as though completely fed up with Merle. Glenn wondered if the younger man's reaction was an indication that perhaps the older guy bringing back random strangers to rob and tease was a common occurrence in this group. If it was, hopefully letting these random strangers go afterward, unharmed, was also a part of this practice.

"What?" Merle continued trying to convince the younger man that this was a good idea. "He's a great house guest. Even brought us gifts." He gestured toward the guy who had grabbed Glenn's bag before.

"You gotta learn to just leave people alone, Merle. It's not like we needed his stuff," the younger man growled as he shoved past the guy who was looking through Glenn's back pack and made his way toward the door that led downstairs.

Glenn looked nervously toward Merle, who was laughing yet again. "Sorry 'bout my little brother Daryl." He shrugged, finally loosening his grip a bit. "He don't like meeting new people. Always was a little rude around company."

"Well," Glenn tried not to sound completely terrified as he attempted to gently talk his way out of this. "It was nice meeting you all. Enjoy the stuff..." He gestured toward the bag and continued rambling, as he didn't know what else to do to ease the tension among them and make a clean escape. "Uh... there's more where that came from, down the block at the store. No more noodles though." He offered a breathless laugh as he backed toward the door Daryl had just exited through.

"Not so fast, Glenn." Merle raised an eyebrow as he quickly reached toward Glenn and caught him by the collar of his shirt. He proceeded to put his heavy arm down over Glenn's shoulders and drag him back toward the rest of the group. "You didn't even meet everyone yet. Guys, this is Glenn," Merle spoke to his group, adding in an intrigued voice, "He's traveling alone."

Glenn swallowed again. He was so screwed.

"I'm Levi," the man going through the bag introduced himself with a grin that showed he was missing a couple teeth.

The next guy, a skinnier man, but who still had more height and muscle than Glenn, unfortunately, introduced himself next. "Lawrence Hall." He nodded toward Glenn as though attempting to be polite. This man looked a little better groomed than the others, and younger too, maybe in his thirties.

Glenn forced a small smile toward Lawrence, even though what he really wanted to do was turn and run. At least this guy didn't look like he was contemplating murder like the others did.

Regardless of Lawrence's more gentle appearance, Glenn couldn't believe any of these men were good people. Not if they were okay with Merle shooting at strangers and then proceeding to drag said strangers, unwilling, back to their group and keep them there against their will. No matter that these guys hand't been overtly physically violent thus far. It was still extremely apparent to anyone with eyes that Glenn wanted to leave, and so far, none of them were offering him any way out.

"Brady," the last man offered, neither nodding, nor smiling. Instead, he simply stared down at Glenn with his dark eyes looking very serious and almost angry as he crossed his thick arms over his chest. Brady had short, dark brown, messy hair and wore a red flannel shirt with a torn pocket hanging off the front of it.

Glenn could feel himself shaking and tried to make himself stop. He in took a breath as slow and steady as he could manage, trying to keep himself calm. The last thing he needed was for these men to see how scared of them he was.

"Well," Merle spoke up again, still holding onto Glenn firmly with his arm around the younger man's slim shoulders. "Glenn's gonna stay with us for a while. Ain't that right, Glenn?"

Glenn glanced nervously up toward Merle. "Uh," he hesitated. More than anything, he wanted to decline that offer, but he couldn't very well tell them they seemed creepy and that he wanted nothing to do with them. So he settled on the truth, even though it wouldn't have necessarily applied had he run into a less sketchy group. "I was actually going to leave the city and search for my family."

"Aw-" Levi pouted passed Glenn's bag to Lawrence as he made his way over toward Glenn and Merle. He was frowning when he reached them. Levi looked down toward Glenn and put his hand heavily on Glenn's arm. "We're your family now, little kid. You can't leave us. We're already so attached to you."

Glenn felt his shoulders slump as panic continued to grow in his chest. "Come on, guys," he urged, shaking his head slightly back and forth. "You can keep my bag and everything. I just wanted to leave the city." He tried to shrug out of Merle's hold on him, but the older man only pulled him closer. "Please just let me go," Glenn felt so defeated having to come right out and beg to be let free. He had hoped for something less embarrassing, like him simply telling them goodbye and then walking away from them.

"You're being rude, Glenn," Merle offered in a gravely voice.

Closing his eyes in frustration, Glenn breathed in, trying to think of his next move. He was probably faster than these guys. If he could just get away from them for a moment, he could outrun them. But then, they had guns... He wasn't faster than a bullet.

But he had to try. He didn't trust that these men wouldn't kill him either way. Why else would a group of five obviously quite capable adult men want to force someone to join their group if their intentions weren't sinister? It's not like they needed Glenn to help them.

In one swift move, Glenn ducked down out of Merle's grip, immediately darting toward the roof's door. Because he hadn't tried to run off yet, and had only very calmly and gently tried to shrug away from these guys' grabbing hands so far, no one was expecting him to make such an effort, so their hands did not secure him tightly enough to prevent it.

Glenn sprinted to the door, swung it open and began running down the stairs so fast he was scared he might trip and fall down them. He reached the bottom quickly. All the while panic rose in his chest as he heard four pairs of feet thudding heavily down the stairs behind him.

He swung open the door on the ground floor and rushed outside, immediately colliding with someone's chest, hard enough to cause Glenn to stumble backward and fall to the ground.

With a small whimper, Glenn looked up toward the person he'd run into, hoping it wasn't a walker, but also somehow hoping it wasn't anyone alive either.

Surprisingly, whoever it was offered a hand down to help him up. He grabbed the hand and looked up into this person's blue eyes for a brief moment before he was pulled up to his feet. It was Daryl, Merle's brother who had seemed angry at Glenn's presence before.

Glenn stared at him blankly for a moment. Daryl didn't seem to want him here. Maybe he wouldn't object to Glenn continuing to run away.

With Glenn's hand still in his, Daryl pulled him up and then shoved him forward. "Go," Daryl spoke simply.

Glenn nodded thankfully and continued on his way, just in time to hear the door behind him swung harshly open, hitting the wall behind him hard as his pursuers nearly caught up with him.

As he ran onward, he could hear a few of the men arguing for a moment while the rest of their feet continued to thud along close behind him.

"Just let 'im go, Merle," Daryl's voice ordered.

Glenn didn't hear Merle's response, assuming he gave one. He was too focused on running. Unfortunately, he now had absolutely no defense against the geeks, and all of Merle's gunfire had attracted even more of them by now.

Glenn ran and ran, only second-guessing his route when he turned a corner and came face to face with six or seven walking corpses, who immediately noticed his presence and began shuffling toward him.

With a small whimper, Glenn turned back around, only to see Merle, Levi, Lawrence, and Brady were gaining on him. He glanced back toward the walkers, who were getting closer to him by the second. The walkers were slower than the men. Maybe he'd stand a better chance just trying to run through the small group of them.

Against his better judgment, Glenn ran toward the geeks, close to the edge of the road to avoid them as best as possible.

Glenn gasped and shrunk down when he heard gunfire yet again, but whoever was shooting wasn't aiming for him. A walker ahead and to his left jerked back as the bullet collided with it's head. It fell heavily against the ground. Glenn ran on wincing silently each time another bullet was fired. Even though his path was being cleared for him, the gunfire was certainly a reminder that Merle and his men could kill him at any moment if they wanted to.

Quickly, Glenn ducked into an alley, mostly so if his new acquaintances were planning on shooting him next, they wouldn't have a clear shot. He ran down the alley, reaching a chain-link fence at the end, jumping up onto it and climbing up as quickly as possible.

And this is where his luck ran out. He soon felt hands on the back of his shirt, pulling up backward off the fence so that he fell back, and would have hit the ground if rough hands hadn't caught him. Glenn wasn't even sure at this point if he hoped it was one of Merle's cronies or a walker grabbing him.

He was spun around and slammed up against the alley's wall in time to see Merle's angry eyes staring down at him while the older man breathed in and out heavily. "The hell are you thinking? You're gonna get us all killed."

Glenn panted as he started up at Merle and noticed Levi running up behind him. Levi looked even more out of breath than Merle did.

A few more gun shots rang out from the street as Lawrence and Brady seemingly finished off the small group of walkers.

"I didn't ask you to come after me," Glenn panted, trying in vain to shrug out of Merle's grip. "Let me go," he demanded in as stern a voice he could manage.

Merle offered a cocky laugh as he glanced toward Levi. "What you think, Lee? Should we let 'im go?" Merle shoved Glenn roughly toward Levi who caught him in his thick arms, wrapping one tightly around Glenn's shoulders. It was impossible to ignore the fact that Levi held a hand gun in his other hand.

"I think little Glenn here could still be useful," Levi smirked down at him with a disgusting grin, once again showing off his missing teeth.

Glenn shuddered as Levi tightened his grip and held his gun threateningly close. "What do you guys want from me?" he wondered, though he almost feared what the answer might be.

"Your hair smells gooood, little kid," Levi ignored the question as he actually leaned his face down toward the top of Glenn's head and inhaled.

Glenn ignored the gun now, shrugging down out of Levi's grip, but he didn't make it far this time. Levi must have been expecting it. He grabbed after Glenn immediately, catching his arm and tugging him back so hard Glenn could swear he almost pulled Glenn's shoulder out of its socket.

Suppressing a pained cry, Glenn threw out his arms and kicked out at his assailant. He needed to give his all at this point. If he didn't get away from these men, he was probably going to be killed by them.

"Get off me!" he screamed, no longer caring about attracting more walkers with the sound of his frantic voice. Maybe bringing in a large group of them would actually help him at this point.

Levi must not have felt the same way. "Stop screaming," he demanded in an angry voice as he crushed his hand over Glenn's mouth.

Glenn struggled to turn his face away from Levi's hand, to get another good scream in, but Levi held him tightly, pressing his hand down so hard over Glenn's mouth that the back of the boy's head was crushed painfully against the brick wall of the alley.

Since Glenn couldn't move Levi's hand off him, he focused on what he could do, swinging punches at the man's thick chest and kicking out, stomping on Levi's feet in hopes that it might make him step back long enough to give Glenn the window of opportunity he needed. That only made Levi crush his body up closer against Glenn's to use his sheer size to keep Glenn's smaller body in place.

In one last attempt to fee himself, Glenn slammed his knee up between Levi's legs as hard as he could. Levi stumbled back for a moment, allowing Glenn to run back toward the fence for a mere few seconds. But he was quickly caught by the same rough hands, this time tackling him to the hard ground.

Through his own hard, frantic breaths, Glenn could hear Merle's raspy laugh as Levi held him down on the ground. He couldn't move. He looked up in time to see Levi's dark, angry eyes glaring down at him just as the man raised his fist up in the air and slammed it down hard against the side of Glenn's face.

Then everything went dark.

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	2. Why Not?

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Chapter 2

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Daryl Dixon looked with a frown down at his brother's newest captive, a young Asian man who was slumped over on the floor, half-sitting with his body leaning limply against a support pillar and with his arms wrapped around the same pillar. After Merle and his friends had chased after the kid and knocked him out, they'd dragged him back here, to the building their group had been living in over the past week or so. The boy's wrists had been heavily duct-taped together, effectively tethering him to the pillar, so that he'd be unable to escape as soon as he regained consciousness from the rather harsh punch Levi had delivered to the side of his face.

The kid, who Daryl had learned was name Glenn, couldn't have been much older than twenty. He had gentle, boyish features and only a small amount of muscle. He looked like a sheltered city kid, which he probably had been prior to the world virtually ending. Merle said the boy had been traveling all alone. It must have been a pretty frightening experience for a kid barely out of high school - to be left all by himself, in the middle of a large city, and in the middle of an uprising of the undead. To make matters worse for Glenn, there were plenty of people just like Merle out there. Cruel, uncaring, violent people just waiting for the opportunity to find someone weaker than them to use to their own advantage or amusement. This new, twisted version of the world wasn't made for people like Glenn. That much was obvious.

Daryl cocked his head to the side as he stared down at Merle's unfortunate victim. A thick piece of duct-tape was stretched over his mouth, pretty much stretching from just under his left ear to just under his right, probably because Merle hadn't wanted to risk the possibility that this kid might scream and attract too many of the undead corpses which regularly roamed the streets lately. While Glenn seemed smart enough to know better, even the most reasonable man might resort to screaming when being hurt or threatened by people like Merle and his companions.

With his hands securely bound with so much duct-tape it could have held the Titanic together, the boy looked so small and vulnerable. Compared to Merle and the others, Glenn was tiny, and the poor young man hadn't stood a chance when he'd tried to escape from them. Any single one of them could have easily overpowered him, and with Merle as well as his three rough friends working to keep the boy captive, there was no way for Glenn to get out of this on his own.

As soon as Merle had spotted the kid walking down the street, Daryl knew things weren't going to go well for Glenn. At first, Merle and the others had just observed the boy from atop the roof. Merle had been using the walkers down below as target practice and only noticed the kid was alive when he had flinched at the sound of gunfire and looked up toward the top of the building. Daryl knew right then that his brother wasn't going to be able to just leave the guy alone. And it wasn't long before Merle was taking aim at the pavement in front of the kid's feet, waiting until Glenn began to panic before running down stairs to confront and abduct him.

Daryl hated that his brother delighted in toying with people like this, and he hated even more that his brother's friends were perfectly willing to play along. In fact, some of Merle's friends were even rougher than Merle was, at times. Glenn wasn't the first little friend Merle had dragged home. His other two victims hadn't lasted.

The first, an older man who had seemingly pissed off Merle when they came across each other while scavenging for supplies, met his end thanks to Levi. Merle had seemingly brought the man back just for the sake of messing with him, but his friends had been too rough, and the poor old man had ended up dead. Daryl didn't think it had been on purpose, but he was fairly sure the next one was.

Merle's second kidnapping victim was snippy young man in a suit. Yes, he'd honestly been wearing a suit, well into the first months of the end of the world, when most people didn't even bother trying to find a way to shower anymore. This guy had been too cocky for his own good, going so far as to call the group 'a bunch of redneck hicks' and making fun of Levi's missing teeth. The poor guy must have not gotten the memo that there were no longer laws to protect him from the wrath of those he treated like the scum of the earth. For some reason he had considered it a wise idea to make fun of a bunch of rough, armed men during the apocalypse. In a newly lawless land, that just wasn't a great plan. While Daryl agreed that this guy was a little pretentious and condescending, he did not agree when, during a verbal dispute between the men, Levi just shot him between the eyes without hesitation.

Fortunately for Glenn, the young man seemed a bit different than Merle's other two hostages. Glenn was non-confrontational and way too trusting, from what Daryl could see. He'd offered up his name to Merle without even being asked and had tried to play the situation cool by forcing small talk and nervous laughter, clearly trying to stay on everyone's good side regardless of his obvious fear. Merle's other captives hadn't been that polite. But that's why they were dead now and Glenn wasn't. He had even willingly walked up the stairs on his own, meeting up with the others atop the roof without having to be brutally dragged along. Of course, Merle had probably played a bit of a role in pressuring Glenn not to immediately run off. Perhaps a part of Glenn's lack of verbal or physical fight against his captors was more due to his fear than his innocence and politeness.

While being trusting was a dangerous trait to possess now and always, Daryl couldn't deny that the boy's innocent, patient, and open-minded attitude may have saved his life in this situation. With Merle's past two victims, Levi had grown frustrated with them when they were too opinionated or fought back too hard. Glenn being more easy-going and less likely to tell all these guys to fuck off could easily keep him alive in the upcoming days. The kid had already lasted longer than the other two men, whose names Daryl never even learned during their short time spent with this group.

Daryl had already asked Merle to leave other passerby survivors alone from now on. After the second man was dragged back to their group, it was beginning to look like a pattern, and a pattern Daryl did not like. Daryl didn't generally like people any more than anyone else in their group did. People pissed him off all the time, and he usually didn't care if they lived or died. But he was certainly not in the business of abducting people and finishing them off himself. Nor was he on board with Merle's frame of mind. Merle didn't seem to generally want to actually kill people without good reason, but he did seem to enjoy toying with them and humiliating them, be that by shooting at their feet just to scare them, shoving them around, forcing them to join a group they clearly didn't belong in just for the sake of making them suffer through being around his friends, or generally making them feel vulnerable and weak.

The disgust Daryl felt towards his brother's tendency to torment people was the reason that he'd made no effort to stop the kid when Glenn came running down the stairs a few minutes after Daryl had taken leave from the group. The boy hadn't seemed to expect Daryl to be down there, and had run right into him when he exited the building. They boy had collided with Daryl so hard that it knocked Glenn entirely off his feet. Instead of helping his brother's cause, however, Daryl had pulled the boy up off the ground and advised him to run for it. Of course, that hadn't worked out.

Daryl sighed as he squatted down next to his group's most recent hostage. He was going to have to keep a close watch on this kid to make sure his brother's friends didn't kill him, since Merle was clearly incapable of doing so himself. Or at least most likely unwilling. Of course Daryl didn't know or care about this young man as a person, but he at least acknowledged that the boy was in fact a person, and didn't deserve to be degraded and hurt for no reason.

If he waited for the right time, Daryl could even help the boy escape, but he'd need to wait for a time when the young man would have a hell of a head start. The last thing he wanted was to help the kid get away only to have Merle and the others go after him with a vengeance and end up killing him. If Daryl was going to help this guy, he was going to do it right, so that it didn't end up getting him killed. Daryl certainly didn't want to feel responsible for that.

Reaching toward Glenn's face, Daryl put his hand under the boy's chin, tilting his head upward a bit so Daryl could better see his face. With his eyes closed and with the large strip of tape covering a majority of the bottom half of his face, the boy looked quite pathetic. Unfortunately for Glenn, he was pretty much completely defenseless, and thus at the mercy of Merle and the others.

Daryl brushed a bit of Glenn's hair to the side with his other hand, to see the large bruise forming on the side of the boy's forehead and temple. Levi had clearly hit him very hard, and that was, of course, while he was still unconscious. A small cut complete with a bit of dried blood was in the middle of that bruise. Daryl grimaced as he looked at it. It looked pretty painful.

Daryl drew his hands back when a small, muffled whimper came from Glenn's direction. For a moment, Glenn's eyes fluttered as though he was struggling to decide whether to wake back up or remain unconscious, but as soon as the boy seemed to have come around enough to realize where he was and what was happening, he quickly flinched back away from Daryl and immediately began struggling to free his hands from the mound of duct-tape that surrounded them.

"There's no use fighting," Daryl informed him, trying to keep his voice stern, yet generally unthreatening. "Just wastin' your energy."

Glenn stared back at him with wide, dark eyes, which were brimming with unshed tears. He tried to say something through the tape, but it only came out as an indecipherable groan, followed by a panicked whimper and more futile struggling. Daryl didn't blame him for being terrified. If the older man ever found himself in such a situation, he'd be pretty worried too. While Daryl would have liked to hope that Merle would never kill someone for no reason, he couldn't be sure, and he knew for a fact that at least one of the other men in their group would in fact kill someone for a very small offense. Glenn was far from safe here, and he knew it.

"Don't scream," Daryl ordered as he reached toward the tape. As long as the kid didn't start screaming, Daryl saw no harm in at least affording him the right to speak. There was no need for Daryl to join his brother and the others in making sure Glenn was as miserable as possible. "I'm sure the last thing you want is to attract a bunch of walkers while you're tied down like this," Daryl added as a little extra incentive for the kid to keep his voice down.

Glenn nodded in agreement and Daryl pulled the tape away from his lips. As soon as he could speak again, the boy immediately began pleading with Daryl. "Please let me go," Glenn urged. "I can tell you don't want to do this... whatever this is... Just let me go. Undo the tape, I'll sneak out the back. You can pretend you don't know how I got away. Please..."

Daryl shook his head. He didn't want this kid to think he was like the others, but he still wanted to be taken seriously, so he didn't make any promises. He could have told Glenn he would help him escape when the time was right, but instead, he simply denied the request. The last thing he needed was for this kid to think Daryl was his friend. After all, Daryl was no one's friend. He wasn't even friends with Merle.

"Please!" Glenn's voice rose in volume and he almost sounded like he was going to cry. He pulled at his taped hands again, groaning in frustration when the tape made no indication that it was going to tear or slip off his hands. "Just let me go! I don't have anything useful. Your friends already took my bag and my weapon is out in the alley. I don't have anything left for you guys to take. There's no reason to keep me here and you know it!"

Daryl shook his head again. "Can't do that, bud."

"Why not?!" The boy cried out in a shaking voice. With obvious frustration, Glenn pulled at his wrists again. He seemed so desperate.

If Daryl could be confident the kid wouldn't run off, he would have removed the tape without hesitation, but at this point, it seemed letting Glenn free would probably only end up getting him hurt. If Daryl let him go, he'd run, one of the others would see that he was running, and they'd chase him. Maybe they wouldn't be so lenient if they had to chase him down twice in the same day. Glenn was lucky Levi only hit him when he ran off before. If one of them had shot him instead, Daryl wouldn't have been all too surprised.

"Listen, kid-" Daryl leaned in closer to him, causing Glenn to shrink down slightly. "I don't have any interest in keeping you here, but there's four other guys in this building who do. You ain't just gonna sneak out a back door and go on your merry way. If one of 'em finds you sneaking around, you might end up dead, and then your blood'll be on my hands."

Glenn shook his head. "No, it'll be on theirs. Just let me go. Let me find my own way out. Leave it up to me. Take the tape off, and then I'm my own problem. Not yours. I absolve you from responsibility..." He sounded so desperate as he continued rambling. "I won't blame you for whatever happens. No one will. You don't have to worry or feel like anything is on you. Just let me go. Help me get the tape off, and just walk away. Please..."

Daryl shook his head and moved to put the tape back over Glenn's mouth. The kid was getting too frantic, and his voice as becoming too loud. While Daryl wasn't too worried about the walkers hearing him from all the way outside, he was worried that the other men might hear him. They were likely eager to have a minute with the little guy, so they could delight in teasing and torturing him with whatever sick games they had brewing in their nasty minds. If taping the boy's mouth back shut might spare him from a bit of the other men's torments, Daryl would offer Glenn that courtesy.

"No, no, no," Glenn begged, trying to stretch as far away as possible to avoid having his voice stifled once again. "Please!"

Daryl put his other hand on the back of Glenn's head so he could hold him in place in order to more firmly reattach the thick strip of tape. Glenn tried to turn away from Daryl, to keep the older man from forcibly silencing him again, but Daryl was stronger than he was and didn't allow him to.

"I won't scream," Glenn promised, though he practically was screaming already. "Please! Just let me go! At least keep the tape off my face. I won't scream! I promise! I won't mmmph-"

Slapping the tape firmly back over the boy's mouth and effectively silencing him in mid-sentence, Daryl stood up and looked down at him. "I'd advise you to sorta play like you're passed out still for as long as you can. They probably won't bother you if they think yer still out."

Glenn simply stared up at him with wide, terrified eyes.

"Course you were pretty loud just now, so yer cover might already be blown." Daryl shrugged. "I'll be around." With that he took off to find Merle. He needed to talk some sense into his brother. Even if Merle himself wouldn't hurt the kid too bad, the same couldn't be said for his friends. Merle's decision to bring the boy here made Glenn his responsibility, and therefore, if Levi or either of the other two men ended up killing him, it would indeed be Merle's fault on some level, just as the other two hostages' deaths were.

Daryl needed to do what he could to stop whatever was happening here before it progressed too far.

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	3. Merle's Playground

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Chapter 3

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Merle looked out over the city as he stood near the edge of the building's roof. There were more walkers on the streets now than there had been hours before. That was probably mostly Merle's fault, since he'd been shooting at them and making quite a bit of noise. In his current state, however, he didn't much care. He'd been drinking, as he often did, so the couple of stray walkers stumbling toward the building didn't really bother him. The gun shots had rang out loudly, bouncing off a large number of buildings. There's no way the walkers could actually pin-point their location based on a couple gunshots, and a handful of them stumbling down the street, with no idea that several living people were in this certain building really didn't pose a threat.

The building where they had been living for the past couple of weeks, and on top of which Merle now found himself, had once been both a store as well as some sort of storage space. The bottom two floors was a shop which seemed completely unrelated to the items stored above it, and the four floors above that were mostly empty. A few boxes of mostly worthless stuff, like huge crates filled with office supplies littered the top four floors, but beyond that, the building was pretty useless for anything besides shelter. That's why it was such a good find. No other threatening survivors would fight them for it. Of course, Merle's group was probably one of the more threatening groups left in the city, so he'd probably not have much to worry about either way.

But living in a place no one else would be seeking out left him room to let his guard down, which is why he was currently relaxing on the roof, drinking he fifth beer out of a six-pack he'd found this morning.

"Merle." He turned toward the sound of his brother's voice as Daryl made his way up onto the roof and approached him.

"Hey, little brother." Merle smiled at him. If nothing else in this word was going well, he at least had his family with him, the only family he ever cared for too. Maybe his relationship with Daryl wasn't perfect, but it was what he had, and he cherished it, in his own strange way.

"You gotta let that kid go," Daryl said, staring at Merle with a very serious expression on his face.

Merle scoffed and looked back over the roof's edge. "I'm just playin' with 'im. No harm done. He's traveling alone. Nobody's gonna come lookin' for him. Nobody's gonna fight us over it. Just let me and the guys have our fun, will ya?"

Daryl shook his head. "You're not just playing with him, Merle. He's gonna end up dead, just like the last two. You can't just treat people like they're your toys."

"Oh, really?" Merle turned toward him with a raised eyebrow. "Who's gonna stop me?"

Daryl sighed heavily. "You wouldn't want someone treatin' you like that. Or me."

"He's not me." Merle scowled at his brother. "And he's not you." Of course Merle wouldn't want someone treating his brother like Merle was treating Glenn. If anyone tried to force Daryl to join a group where he didn't belong just so they could tease him and threaten him, Merle would kill them for it. But Daryl wasn't weak and stupid enough to let something like that happen to him. Neither was Merle.

"He's someone though, Merle." Daryl's gaze remained firmly locked on Merle's. "That kid could be someone's brother. There could be someone out there who looks at him like you look at me, or the other way around. He's a person."

"Listen, Daryl-" Merle frowned. "He's just some kid, right? You don't care what happens to him... But I ain't gonna kill him. I ain't gonna straight-up torture him. I'm just messin' around with 'im a little. I'll let him go when I'm done. It's like those lizards and turtles we used to find as kids. We'd pick 'em up, take 'em home, put 'em in a box for a few days. Mess around with 'em, and then let 'em go. They went back to their dumb little lives and so will this kid."

He could tell his brother didn't approve of Merle's tendency to use other survivors he found as his playthings. It was just so fun to mess with people though. When else in his life could he have had the opportunity to find a lone, vulnerable-looking guy on the street and just grab him up and toy with him? Throughout the rest of his life, there were so many rules. He couldn't do anything without being thrown in jail for it... The apocalypse was his playground. Why shouldn't he take advantage of it?

"Half of those lizards ended up dead, Merle." Daryl scowled at him. "And the last two guys you brought back here are dead too. It's not just you I'm worried about. Regardless of the fact that yer actin' like a sociopath, I don't think you'd really kill him. But I know Levi would. And I'm not confident Lawrence and Brady could keep their hands off him either. This kid's gonna end up dead, whether you're the one to do it or not."

"Exactly," Merle laughed. "He's gonna end up dead no matter where he is. We're probably doin' him a favor keeping him in here instead of letting him run off on his own out with all the walkers, right?"

Daryl shook his head. "He's not your pet, Merle. It's not your place..."

"He'll be my pet if I want 'im to be," Merle laughed and turned back toward the ledge, taking a long drink from his beer and looking out over the virtually empty streets. "I got a good feeling about this one, Daryl. He's got enough fight in 'im, but enough fear too. We might be able to keep 'im a while."

"Merle, you can't do that." Daryl walked up to the ledge and looked out over the street with his brother.

"Why the hell not?" Merle glanced over at him. "I'm not gonna hurt him if he cooperates. He don't even have to be tied up. Not if he plays along. Give him a few days, and he'll be walkin' around with the rest of us. Won't take 'im long to learn his place."

"Is that what you want then? You want to basically bully this kid into staying here, acting like he's staying willingly just because he's so afraid of you killing him that he won't run away anymore? You just want someone smaller than you so you can push him around an' make 'im feel like shit like Dad always did to us," Daryl growled. "Just because you can push someone around, hurt, and humiliate them, doesn't mean you should."

Merle turned toward his brother, staring at him silently for a moment. For a split second, he thought about punching his little brother for that comment, but then he thought better of it. Hitting Daryl for comparing him to their father would only prove his younger brother's point. "I ain't nothin' like Dad." The older Dixon scowled down at his younger brother. If there was one person in this world Merle aspired not to be like, it was their father. Before Daryl had a chance to say anything more to him, Merle shoved past him and made his way toward the door.

He walked downstairs a few floors and made his way toward his hostage, who was slumped down against the post Merle had thoroughly attached him to earlier. If Daryl wanted to accuse him of being too harsh, he'd show him right now just how harsh he could be. Glenn was almost definitely more safe here than he would have been otherwise. As far as Merle was concerned, he'd done the kid a favor bringing him inside instead of leaving him to his own idiotic suicide mission. Some twenty-something year old city boy wasn't going to survive very long all on his own. Merle had probably saved him, and what did he get in return for it? Daryl accusing him of being cruel, and comparing him to the one person Merle hated most in the world.

"Wake up." Merle kicked the boy's foot as soon as he reached him, but received no response.

He knelt down next to his captive and grabbed his face, which caused Glenn to flinch back.

"I knew you was awake." Merle smirked down at him. "My brother wants me to let you go," Merle spoke, cocking his head to the side as he stared down at his captive. Glenn's eyes were huge, but the tape over the lower half of his face prevented him from saying anything back, which was fine by Merle, as he didn't really care what the kid had to say on the matter. "You wanna leave, Glenn? You don't like being here with me an' my friends? You don't like us, boy?" Merle accused in a raspy voice as he kept his hand firmly on Glenn's chin, forcing the kid to look at him.

He swatted lightly at Glenn's cheek, causing the boy to flinch and close his eyes for a brief moment.

Daryl had followed him downstairs and was right behind him at this point. "Just leave 'im alone, Merle. Let's just calm down for a second. We'll let him go tomorrow, early so he's got a good start before it gets dark, okay?"

"That sound good to you, Glenn?" Merle grabbed at Glenn's face again, forcing the boy to look at him once more, but making no move to remove the tape from the kid's mouth. He didn't really expect or need an answer from his captive. He wasn't really going to let Glenn go, and judging by the boy's terrified eyes and trembling body, it seemed the kid was well-aware of this.

"Merle," Daryl spoke in the tone he always reserved for his 'calm-down' chats with his older brother. Daryl was constantly trying to tell Merle that the older Dixon brother was out of control and needed to ease up. In everything Merle did, Daryl was always there telling him to chill out.

"Nah, we'll just let him go right now," Merle spoke in an aggravated voice. He didn't like Daryl telling him what to do. In fact, he didn't like anyone telling him what to do. "You want me to let him go? We'll let him go." He pulled out his pocket knife, noticing Glenn flinch back at the sight of the small weapon. Ignoring his captive's fear, Merle brought the knife down to the kid's wrists and went to work cutting the tape off Glenn's hands.

"Merle, stop," Daryl urged in a very serious voice. Although Glenn was probably thoroughly confused as to what exactly was happening, Daryl knew his brother well enough to know what was going on. Of course Merle wasn't going to let Glenn go. He was proving a point, as he always did when his brother argued with him.

As soon as Glenn's hands were free, the boy didn't even make a move to get up and run away. He surely sensed that Merle's words had a deeper meaning, and he was quite obviously afraid to even move as long as Merle was so close to him.

"Let's go, kid." Merle pulled Glenn up roughly by the arm, hearing a pained whimper come from Glenn's still-taped mouth as he tugged the boy to his feet.

At this point, Glenn reached a shaking hand up to his face and pulled the tape off his mouth. Even now that he could speak, the boy did not take the opportunity to do so as Merle dragged him toward the stair case. Daryl followed close behind them.

It wasn't until Merle started leading Glenn up the stairs instead of down them that the kid began to visibly panic. "Where are we going?" he wondered in a breathless voice.

"We're gonna go let you go, Glenn. You don't like me... Well, I don't much like you either." Merle dragged him roughly up the stairs, all but ignoring Glenn's attempts to escape from his grasp.

"Merle!" Daryl yelled at his older brother. "Stop it!"

But Merle didn't listen to his brother. Daryl needed to see that Merle was not someone who took orders from anyone else. Every decision Merle made was a decision he stood by. If he found a survivor out on the street and wanted to take him back and toy with him for a while, he was damn-well going to. Daryl didn't make his choices for him, and if he was going to continue to try to do so, he was gonna end up with more than he bargained for.

Merle dragged Glenn up to the roof and over toward the edge. "You want me to let 'im go, Daryl? Like you said, he's just gonna die anyway, regardless of what I do to 'im. Regardless of what my friends do. Let's just get it over with. Stop wastin' all of our time an' efforts. We'll let him go." Merle offered a raspy, sarcastic laugh as he pulled Glenn closer to the roof's edge.

"No!" Glenn pleaded, struggling under Merle's tight hold on him. "Please don't!"

"Oh, changed yer mind, did ya? You wanna stay here with us, Glenn?" Merle growled, shaking the boy in his hands as he held him perilously close to the ledge. "My brother thinks you don't wanna be here. If you don't wanna be here, I can solve that real quick. I invited you to join my group. I let you into the building where we live, let you into our home, off the streets, away from walkers that would surely kill you. I pretty much saved your damn life, boy, and you just wanna leave? You just wanna go back out onto the streets and get yourself killed. You got no appreciation for me savin' your damn life!" He continued shaking the boy roughly as he spoke.

Glenn squeezed his eyes shut and gripped Merle's arms tightly in his hands, trying to hold onto the older Dixon brother. Merle was currently the only thing within his reach which he could grab for in order to keep himself from being thrown over the edge.

"You still wanna be let go, Glenn?" Merle asked, his voice as harsh as ever. He shook Glenn again when the boy didn't answer. "Hm?"

"No," Glenn breathed out with a shaking breath.

"You wanna stay here with us? You won't try to run away again? You won't try to convince my little brother to let you leave?" Merle growled, shaking Glenn again as he pushed him even closer to the edge.

Glenn's eyes were open again as he looked down at the ground, six stories below. He leaned toward Merle as much as possible and held onto the older man's forearms with a death-grip, his slender fingers trembling uncontrollably.

"Hm?" Merle questioned. "Answer me, kid. You wanna stay? You gonna be good?"

"Yes," Glenn spoke in a trembling voice. "Please," he begged.

"See, Daryl?" Merle smirked toward his younger brother, who only scowled back at him. "He wants to say. He likes it here."

Daryl shook his head in apparent disgust.

Merle pulled Glenn back away from the ledge so that the boy was right up against the older Dixon brother's torso. He could feel Glenn's body shaking as frantic breaths rose and fell in his slim chest. It was the same thing one of his dogs used to do when he'd hold it out over a ledge and make it think he was going to drop it.

With a laugh, Merle shoved Glenn toward Daryl. "Keep an eye on him, little brother," he ordered. "He gets away and one of my guys'll probably kill 'im. You know I could track him down."

Daryl caught Glenn as he stumbled toward him after Merle's harsh shove. The younger Dixon brother almost looked as though he felt protective of the boy, though Merle couldn't understand why. Daryl never cared about anyone, especially not some worthless little city boy he didn't even know.

"If anyone's treating 'im like a pet, you are," Merle growled as he shoved past them and made his way back toward the door. "Better keep 'im on a short leash," he called back over his shoulder.

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	4. Useful

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Chapter 4

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Glenn didn't know what else to do besides hold perfectly still as he stood with Daryl's arm wrapped completely across the younger man's back and around his shoulders. With his hands in loose fists held up against his own shirt, Glenn was facing toward Daryl's chest and was still trembling from what he'd just experienced. He could almost swear he could still smell the faint stench of alcohol that had been on Merle's breath. No wonder the man was so unforgivably violent. He had probably been drunk this whole time.

Letting out a shaking breath, Glenn remained standing still in Daryl's strange half-embrace. He was glad Merle hadn't actually thrown him over the edge of the building, but he wasn't sure what the odd encounter meant for his future with this group. Were they really going to force him to stay, and try to pretend it's what he wanted? Was Glenn just supposed to follow them around, let them tease him, and pretend everything was great? And would his refusal to do so then mean his certain death?

If Merle was really the one in charge here, it seemed like any mis-step from Glenn, or even from Daryl, might end up getting Glenn killed. He wondered if that's how these two brothers functioned... Merle was in charge, and Daryl showing any disagreement or any care toward anyone Merle didn't care about himself, even as small as the amount of care he'd shown toward Glenn, was simply not tolerated... Glenn hoped Daryl standing here with him now, with an almost protective arm around his shoulders wouldn't mean Merle would get upset again and do something to Glenn just to prove to Daryl that being a decent human being was not allowed among these men.

This entire group was completely unhinged. How was Glenn supposed to deal with this sort of thing? Just sit back and let them do whatever they wanted with him? As frightening as that sounded, it actually seemed like it might be his safest choice at the moment. He could have pushed Daryl away right now, and ran for it. Daryl might have even let him, as he did before... but did Glenn dare? Merle was somewhere downstairs, and he obviously had some sort of anger issues. Levi had proven his tendency toward violence when he'd hit Glenn so hard that it knocked him out earlier, and Glenn didn't know where Levi was either. The other two men, who Glenn knew just about nothing about, were somewhere nearby too. Maybe being passive and letting these guys push him around a little would be his greatest chance to walk away from all this alive eventually.

Perhaps it was like Daryl had said before when he refused to let Glenn go. He'd just have to wait for the right time, and then run for it and never look back. The right time did not seem to be now.

Still standing awkwardly still, Glenn refused to look up at Daryl or even move an inch. He still wasn't sure what exactly he'd just been a part of... Apparently Daryl had gone to his older brother and asked to have Glenn set free, and Merle had responded to the request as only a crazy person could. It was quickly becoming apparent that Merle was the one in charge here, and that anyone questioning his leadership or choices would result in someone else getting hurt.

Daryl sighed heavily as the two of them remained standing on the roof. The younger of the two brothers clearly didn't know what to do next, and of course neither did Glenn. He was terrified to try running at this point. At least now he wasn't being threatened. If he stuck near Daryl, perhaps he would at least not die. Daryl was still mostly a mystery, but he hadn't hurt Glenn yet, and had been the only one of the group to stand up for him in any way. Merle, on the other hand, seemed perfectly willing to kill him for the smallest offense. If he tried to run now, he'd probably be killed for sure, not by Daryl, but by whichever of the others who happened to catch him first.

"Come on," Daryl ordered as he finally moved his arm from around Glenn's shoulders. He grabbed the back of Glenn's shirt and pulled him along across the rooftop and toward the door which would lead them back downstairs.

Glenn did not hesitate to comply, allowing Daryl to lead him down to a storage room on one of the top floors. Glenn didn't even know which floor he was on, to be honest. His mind was too rattled at the moment to pay attention to how many stairs they'd gone down.

"Stay here," Daryl ordered as he walked Glenn through a large room and toward a door leading into a smaller room. He shoved Glenn into the empty room and stood in the doorway for a moment, offering Glenn a few words of advice before he left. "For your own good, don't try leavin' just yet, okay?"

Glenn nodded and backed himself up toward the wall as Daryl closed the door behind him.

As soon as Daryl was gone, Glenn breathed out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. How the hell was he going to get out of this? He looked around the room. There were two narrow windows on the wall, but they were literally each only about four inches wide. He couldn't fit through them.

In one corner of the room was a wooden crate. He made his way over to it and looked inside. It had no lid, so he could see its contents without having to pry it open. Glenn frowned when he looked inside and found only numerous cardboard boxes filled with reams of office printer paper. While a ream of paper might do a little damage if thrown hard enough at someone, it certainly wasn't a very good weapon. He contemplated pushing the crate in front of the door, but he figured that would only make his captors angry if they tried to get into the room and couldn't. Blocking the door would buy him time, but there was no escape from the room other than the door, so keeping the men away would only mean when they finally did get through, they'd be more angry with him.

Not knowing what else to do, Glenn slumped down into the corner where the crate was, between the large, wooden box and the wall, and waited for what would hopefully be Daryl coming back to tell him they'd all decided to let him leave. He wondered if Daryl was trying to plead his case again. The older man hadn't explained where he was going. Was he even going to come back up here and let Glenn know what was going on? Or did Daryl just stow him here and not have any further plans? After Merle's outburst, maybe Daryl didn't want to ask any of the others to agree to let their captive go. Maybe Glenn was just meant to wait here for hours until someone else in this group decided to attack him.

After a few minutes of sitting still and silent, Glenn stood back up. As scary as it was to know certain people in this building might kill him for attempting to run off, it was equally terrifying to just sit back and wait for them to decide what to do with him. At least if he ran off, he would likely just be shot and killed instantly. If he stayed here, they might do all sorts of terrible things to him, only to end up killing him anyway.

At the moment, Glenn wasn't restrained or tied down in any way. This was his chance to do something, a chance he very well might not have again.

So he walked carefully toward the door. He'd just have to treat these men as he did the walkers, and time his movements carefully so as to avoid them seeing him. Of course, if a walker saw him, he could just outrun it until it forgot about him. These guys didn't seem to forget him so easily, and they were much faster than walkers. He couldn't let any of them see him at all.

Glenn reached the door and opened it very carefully, as quietly as possible.

With the door opened, Glenn could get a good look at most of the rest of this floor of the building. Most of it seemed to just be one big room. He was in one of several smaller side-rooms. More crates like the one full of paper littered the space. They were all opened, without lids, just like the other one had been. Merle's group had probably gone through them all already, looking for something useful.

Glenn walked cautiously along, peering into the crates as he went. This must have been storage space for a company that sold office supplies. Many of the crates were filled with paper, one with printers, and a few with ink cartridges. None of it would make a good weapon for him, unfortunately.

He made his way quietly past the crates. If he could find a door to the outside or even a window large enough to squeeze through, he might be able to find a set of fire-escape stairs or an escape ladder, which could be his way out. The only windows in the room were the same tall, narrow ones that were in the previous room. There didn't seem to be any doors to the outside either, only the one door he and Daryl had walked through earlier, the one which led to the stairwell. Maybe he'd just have to risk it and and try to get out that way.

Glenn tip toed toward the larger room's door, opening it slowly and peeking out just in time to see that one of the men, Brady, was standing right outside in the stairwell, just a few steps down. He appeared to be alone, smoking a cigar and pacing slowly back and forth. Brady was the one who had barely spoken at all earlier. He'd looked down at Glenn as though he hated him, but maybe it was a sentiment more similar to Daryl's. Maybe he just hated that Merle had abducted Glenn at all. Perhaps he was displeased with the situation and didn't actually hate Glenn. Maybe he'd even be okay with Glenn leaving...

Wincing, as he was sure Brady had noticed the door open a fraction of an inch, Glenn quickly but quietly closed it back up and held his breath. He put his hands up against the door in a vain effort to hold it closed in case Brady really did see him. Glenn looked down at the doorknob. There was a lock on it, but it seemed it was only accessible by a key, which of course he did not have.

When Glenn practically felt the vibrations of feet stomping up the last few stairs to reach this door, he truly began to panic. He held the door closed as firmly as he could, but it didn't matter. Brady was much too strong and easily pushed the door open, knocking Glenn back against the wall in the process.

As soon as Brady was in the room with him, Glenn simply stood still and stared at the taller man who slammed the door back shut behind him and stood in front of him with his large arms crossed over his chest. Brady was one of the few men he hadn't got any sort of read on yet. Of course, the fact that Brady had stared him down earlier didn't bode well, but it didn't really tell him much other than the fact that the man was probably kind of grouchy.

"I thought Merle had you taped up somewhere," Brady noted with narrowed eyes as he stared down at Glenn. Just as before, he looked kind of angry.

"He untied me," Glenn told the man what was the honest truth, even if it didn't sound like it.

"He did, did he?" Brady raised his eyebrows as he looked skeptically down at Glenn. "Why don't I believe that?"

Glenn hesitated. "He threatened to throw me off the roof. He untied me and dragged me up to the roof and threatened to throw me over the edge."

Brady stared at him for a few long seconds and then smiled. "That sounds more like Merle."

Glenn forced a laugh. "Listen, man..." He had to try to reason with this guy. Even if it did no good to attempt to talk to him, it couldn't do any harm either. "I don't know what you guys want with me, but I don't have anything else to give you. All I had was my bag, and Levi already took it. There's no other reason to keep me around at this point," Glenn explained.

"Mm hm." Brady nodded. "So you're saying we should just kill you?"

Glenn felt his shoulders slump. He should have known better than to hope that any of these guys were going to treat him with anything less than condescending disrespect.

"Come on," Brady ordered as he grabbed Glenn's arm in a tight grip. He dragged Glenn along, and Glenn did not struggle this time, as he knew it would be useless. They made their way down some stairs until they found themselves in an area that looked a little more like people actually lived there. "What do you want me to do with him?" Brady called out to Merle who was sitting in a chair near a large window in this room.

Glenn swallowed a lump in his throat as he looked toward Merle.

"What, Daryl's not with 'im?" Merle raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't think my little brother would leave his beloved pet alone and un-supervised already... Do whatever you want with him."

"Alright." Brady turned back the way he came and dragged Glenn along with him. Glenn looked back toward Merle, who looked right back into Glenn's eyes and shrugged. Levi, who had been standing quietly against the wall in the same room began following after Brady and Glenn.

Glenn was terrified, but didn't see any way out. Daryl and the fifth man, Lawrence, were nowhere to be seen. The only people he had left to try to reason with were seemingly the three most unreasonable people out of the group.

Brady led Glenn back up to the room he had been in before, shoving him though the doorway and following him inside. Before he could shut the door, Levi made his presence known to his friend and made his way into the room as well, closing the door behind him.

Finally, there was no one actually holding onto Glenn. Unfortunately, that didn't do anything for the fact that he was still very much trapped in this room. He took a few steps backward until he bumped into one of the several crates strewn about the room.

"What are we gonna do with you, little kid?" Levi shook his head and smirked.

Glenn hesitated. "I could be useful," he offered. "I'm great at going on supply runs. I could go out and find stuff you guys need... And if I don't come back, you're free to come after me... I'll give you my word that I'll come back. It'll be our deal between all of us. I'll get you supplies, and you'll treat me with respect."

Brady laughed loudly. "You think we're stupid enough to just let you leave?"

"Why not?" Glenn fought to keep fear out of his voice. "I know as well as you do that you could come after me and find me easily. I'd be stupid to run away. I'm just tired of getting pushed around. I'll stay with you guys willingly if you stop threatening me." Of course, that wasn't true. As soon as Glenn was given any sort of freedom to leave this place, he was going to run for it. These guys didn't need to know that though.

"I know another way you could be useful." Levi smirked.

Brady glanced over toward his companion and raised an eyebrow, which earned him a very subtle nod from Levi.

Glenn felt panic rising in his chest once more as he looked from one man to the next, trying to decipher their unspoken communication.

When Levi's hand shot out toward him in an effort to grab him, Glenn dodged out of the way, jumping back behind one of the crates and using it as a barrier between him and the men.

"We gotta find a way to keep you still, little kid," Levi commented as he took a step forward. "We can't just have you running around wherever you want in here. You're too uncooperative. Here's a deal for you: Hold the fuck still, and we won't have to tie you down to anything."

Glenn shook his head. He wasn't sure what these men were planning, but it didn't sound good, and he certainly wasn't going to just give himself up to them.

At this point, Brady and Levi went separate ways around the crate, in an attempt to surround him. Glenn quickly rushed back further into the room, finding his way to another crate. Unfortunately, it seemed the crates weren't going to keep him safe. They did no good at separating him from his aggressors when there were two of them who could each simply go separate ways around the wooden boxes. Glenn was only succeeding in backing himself into a corner.

Glenn whimpered as the men closed in on him, finally having cornered him so that he had absolutely no way out. He froze, unsure if fighting back would even be useful, as Brady and Levi grabbed at him, each of them gripping one of his arms and dragging him toward the center of the room. As much as Glenn wanted to kick out, punch, claw, or otherwise attempt to fight his way out of their grasp, he feared it would do no good. What would he do if he got away? Run toward the stairs? And then what? Get caught by Merle, who would then throw him off the roof, or maybe even worse?

"We could tape him to this pillar here," Brady suggested, noticing another of the thin support pillars that were built sporadically around the building.

"Go get the tape," Levi ordered.

Brady let go of Glenn's arm and made his way over toward the door, leaving Glenn alone with Levi, who was honestly the one out of the five men Glenn wanted to be alone with the least. No matter how violent or rude any of the others had been, this was the only one to have actually taken the liberty to inhale the scent of his hair like a total creep.

Glenn held his breath as he stood next to Levi, whose large hands were wrapped around his upper arms in a crushing grip. Hopefully Brady and Levi would just tape his hands together around the pillar, like Merle had earlier. Maybe they just wanted him to be tied up somewhere so he wouldn't run, and that was it. Maybe they'd bind his hands and then leave him alone. He hoped so.

As soon as Brady was gone, Levi looked down at Glenn with a cruel, sickening smirk which made Glenn want to completely disappear. He tried to shrink down away from the larger man, but Levi's grip was firm. Glenn was trapped. "You're certainly the cutest little captive Merle's brought back," Levi said with a disgusting grin and a wink as he brought one of his hands up to Glenn's cheek.

Glenn groaned in disgust and leaned away from Levi as best as he could, but Levi only gripped him tighter and dragged him over toward the wall, shoving him harshly so that his back was up against it and nearly knocking the breath right out of the younger man's lungs.

"Get off me!" Glenn finally screamed as Levi held him firmly up against the wall. Staying silent and cooperative wasn't working out in Glenn's favor this time. Levi put one of his hands on Glenn's neck, not necessarily outright threateningly, but it certainly scared Glenn nonetheless. The boy brought his own hand up to Levi's, trying to pry it off him and using his other hand to shove uselessly at the large man's chest.

The hand around Glenn's neck tightened to keep him in place, and maybe even to keep him from crying out again, as Levi's other hand ran down Glenn's chest and toward his hips. "Hold still, little kid. Nobody here really wants to hurt you. I think we all like you, honestly."

Glenn whimpered in fear and pain as Levi's rough hands pawed at him. The hand around his throat was tightening and Levi's other hand was caressing Glenn's thigh, over his jeans, in a way which made Glenn feel like throwing up. "Let me go!" Glenn cried out in a hoarse whisper as he struggled to breathe with Levi's rough hand tightening around his neck. "Get off me! Get off!" Glenn pounded his fists against Levi's chest and struggled to pull at his thick arm. This time, Levi was leaning so close to him that Glenn couldn't move his legs at all. Levi had seemingly learned from his last up-close encounter with Glenn, and he had pressed his own large body up against Glenn's in a way where Glenn was no longer capable of using his feet or knees as weapons.

"Oh, I'm gonna get off. That's for sure," Levi laughed as he grabbed at one of Glenn's wrists, pinning it harshly against the wall as he used his other hand to start undoing the button on Glenn's jeans.

Glenn struggled to fight the man off, but it was no use, so he settled on screaming, begging for help from anyone who might hear him, hoping that maybe even a single person in this group of harsh, rough men would take pity on him and prevent what was about to happen from actually happening. "Help me! Help!" Glenn screamed. "Heeeelllp!" he screamed so loud his throat hurt, and didn't stop screaming until Levi took a half step back, just enough to give Glenn a bit of space, and then punched him extremely hard in the stomach. Levi immediately closed back in, trapping Glenn against the wall just as quickly as he'd stepped back a moment before.

If he could have moved, Glenn would have doubled over in pain. Maybe he would have fallen to the floor, but Levi's hands and body kept him pressed up against the wall and held upright as Glenn gasped for air and blinked through pained tears as he struggled to scream again.

Levi tugged at Glenn's jeans, pausing to take a moment to push his hand up under Glenn's shirt. Glenn tried to shove the man's hands off him, but couldn't muster the strength to do so. Levi was too strong. Glenn shuddered and tried to shrink away from the rough, calloused hand that was caressing his skin underneath his clothing. As he regained his breath, he screamed again, "Stop! Get off of me!" and he couldn't help the shaking pained sob that escaped his throat immediately after his frantic pleas.

"I told you to hold still." Levi smirked as he brought his hand up to Glenn's cheek in a gesture of mock compassion. "And you need to learn to shut up sometimes too. Hold still and be quiet, and I won't hurt you, see?"

"No!" Glenn screamed, thrashing his body as best as he could as he struggled to free himself. "Stop! Please!" He winced as he felt Levi slap him hard across the face. Again, he would have likely fallen to the floor had the larger man not been holding him upright.

"I told you shut up, little kid," Levi growled, clearly growing frustrated with Glenn's screaming. He pushed his hand roughly up against Glenn's mouth for a brief moment before moving his hands back down, resting one on Glenn's hip and the other pressed firmly against Glenn's chest, under his shirt, in order to hold him in place while humiliating him at the same time.

Glenn whimpered softly as he struggled uselessly against his assailant. "Help me!" Glenn screamed again, squeezing his eyes shut in pain as he fought with all his might to push Levi away from him. As much as he feared Levi hurting him even worse for continuing to scream and fight, he feared more what would happen if he stayed quiet and allowed the huge, rough man to do whatever he wanted. Surely someone in the building could hear him... but would any of them care? Would even Daryl really give a damn what happened to Glenn? Could Glenn honestly trust any of them to look out for him even the slightest bit?

"Heeeelllp!" Glenn cried out in desperation, opening his eyes and staring up at Levi who scowled back down at him. Breathing frantic, terrified breaths, Glenn reached his hands up quickly toward Levi's face, clawing at the other man's eyes in a desperate attempt to hurt the other man back in any little way he could.

"You little prick!" Levi growled.

Glenn may have succeeded in injuring the other man, and probably had, judging by Levi's reaction, but he had no time to see what damage he'd done before Levi hit him again, very hard, across his face. For a moment, Glenn was silenced as he blinked back tears and tried to keep himself focused on the present even with spots now clouding his vision. He knew for a fact, from experience, that Levi was capable of hitting him hard enough to knock him out. For some reason, the man was holding back, if only just slightly. He struck his victim enough to subdue him, but not so hard that Glenn would be granted the mercy of being knocked out for a moment. He wanted Glenn to remain conscious during this.

"You're really pushing your luck," Levi growled, shaking Glenn in his grasp for emphasis. "I said keep quiet, little kid. You're lucky you're in here with me instead of outside with them," Levi whispered as he moved one hand back to Glenn's throat in a threatening gesture and the other down toward Glenn's hips. Squeezing Glenn's neck lightly, as though warning him any more misbehaviors would result in him being strangled, Levi used his other hand to begin tugging at his jeans again.

"Please let me go," Glenn begged in a strained, trembling voice as he feebly struggled to pull himself free and to pry Levi's hands away.

This only caused the older man to grab at Glenn's slim wrist and slam it back up against the wall as he continued shimmying Glenn's jeans further down his thighs. "Shhh," Levi cooed, as he relentlessly continued his assault, running his other hand through Glenn's hair as though trying to comfort him.

Glenn winced and squeezed his eyes shut. His entire body ached and his limbs were so tried from trying to fight his way out of Levi's grip. He tried to tug his one arm out of Levi's grip as he pounded weakly against the large man's broad chest with his other fist. He was so exhausted and so scared. "Please don't do this," he pleaded, basically giving up on calling out for help and instead hoping to appeal to some sort of empathy the other man might possess. It didn't seem like he had any though.

Gripping Glenn's arm in a harsh, firm hand, Levi spun him around, slamming him face-down against the wall hard enough that it almost knocked the breath out of the younger man's lungs yet again.

Glenn turned his face to the side and squeezed his eyes shut as pain and fear filled his entire being. Levi kept him held firmly in place, crushing his large body against Glenn's smaller one as he continued tugging down Glenn's jeans. The man whispered something into Glenn's ear, but the boy was too frightened and distracted to even hear what it was.

"Stop!" Glenn screamed, earning a harsh shove against his back and an even harsher hand clamped down over his mouth. All he could do was whimper a soft, pained groan from under Levi's hand as he continued struggling with everything he had in him to get free.

"Shut up," Levi growled, moving his hand back down to Glenn's jeans. For now, Glenn's undershorts stayed in place as Levi pulled at his pants. Unfortunately, Glenn was pretty sure that wasn't going to be the case for much longer.

As Glenn pushed his hands against the wall, trying to do anything he could to throw the larger man off him, he heard Levi fumbling with his own belt buckle. A pained, terrified sob echoed through the room as Levi turned his attention back toward disrobing his captive. By this point, Glenn's jeans were down around his ankles, and Levi was going for the thin material of the younger man's boxer shorts.

"Let me go," Glenn sobbed just as he heard the sound of someone opening the door across the room. As much as he wanted to believe someone was here to save him from this, he didn't count on it. It was probably only Brady, who would either give Levi the tape he'd asked for and leave, or maybe even stick around to help hold Glenn down while Levi did whatever he wanted to him.

"Stop..." Glenn begged through his tears. His entire body was exhausted and he was in pain all over, where Levi had punched him, slapped him, and grabbed and groped at him too hard. All Glenn could do was continue to beg that this abuse would go no further. As he pushed his trembling arms against the wall, he felt as though he was seconds from passing out completely. He was so scared. "Please don't hurt me..." He pleaded in a small, weak voice.

"Woah, woah, woah, Lee..." It was Merle's unmistakable, raspy voice Glenn heard now.

Glenn opened his eyes and looked over toward the door in time to see Merle making his way across the room.

"You said do whatever we wanted with him." Levi shrugged, pressing his thick body up against Glenn's back, causing the younger man to wince in pain as his already aching body was further crushed between Levi and the wall.

Glenn used both of his arms to try to shove back against the wall in yet another attempt to free himself as he squeezed his eyes shut again. He couldn't move, not even an inch. With his eyes now closed, Glenn struggled to control his breathing. He was so frantic he felt like he could faint. But then, maybe fainting right now wouldn't be such a bad thing. Glenn kept his eyes shut and pushed his arms weakly against the wall again. He didn't even want to look at Merle, who was very unlikely to show him any mercy. The fact that one of the men had heard his cries for help did Glenn no favors at all. All he'd accomplished was to bring Levi an audience, so that even more people could delight in Glenn's pain and humiliation.

He felt Levi's hand against his hip, gripping the elastic material of his victim's boxer shorts. Levi's calloused thumb pushed under the waistband of Glenn's shorts and grazed the skin over his pelvic bone. The man clearly had no issue continuing this even with Merle there, and Merle likely had no issue with it either. Glenn heard another choked sob rise from his own chest as he grabbed at Levi's fingers with his own hand, trying desperately to keep the man from undressing him any more than he already had.

The sounds coming from Glenn were foreign even to him. He'd never heard himself make such desperate, fearful pleas or whimpers. Of course, he'd never been this scared before. The only times that even came close were when a walker nearly claimed him, and even then, it was a far different sort of fear.

With one of his hands pressed against the wall and his other grasping at Levi's rough, hard fingers, Glenn choked out a frantic, pitiful cry. "Please don't do this," he begged, immediately breaking down into sobs as he was certain all the begging in the world was going to make no difference.

Through his frantic, terrified, pained sobs, Glenn heard Merle's gravely voice from a few feet away as the man continued speaking to Levi and made his way closer. "I told Brady to do what he wanted," Merle growled, grabbing at Levi and pulling him back away from Glenn. "And I certainly didn't mean for anyone to do that. God damn, Lee..."

Glenn fought with his own body to stay standing now that no one was holding him in place up against the wall. He opened his tear-filled eyes and stared at Merle, who actually looked upset for once, and not an angry-sort of upset, like he was when he was threatening to throw Glenn off the roof. It was actually a somewhat sick look of disgust, directed at his own friend. Glenn wondered if he should take this opportunity to run for it. Maybe this moment of not being held down by anyone was a moment he needed to take advantage of. But as he stood against the wall, looking from Merle to the door behind the larger man, he wasn't certain if he could really make it far without passing out.

"Get out of here," Merle said to Levi in a low voice as he shoved the other man toward the room's exit.

Levi did as he was ordered and stomped out of the room. For some reason, people in this group seemed to respect Merle's word over anyone else's.

Glenn suddenly felt very cold and numb as he wrapped his arms around himself and stared at the floor. He immediately moved one hand back to the wall, to keep himself steady. He was beginning to feel dizzy, and his chest felt tight. He didn't know what to do next. All he knew was that he felt like he might faint at any moment.

"I'm sorry about that," Merle spoke up in a voice that actually sounded genuine.

Glenn looked up toward him, but didn't know what to say. He could feel his body still shaking and he wasn't sure what to make of the situation. So apparently, Merle didn't mind pushing people around and threatening to throw them over a roof to their death, but he wasn't into sexual assault.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Glenn simply stared at Merle. He was still scared of what Merle might do. Was he upset with Levi because he felt Levi's actions were wrong, or because he was jealous that he wasn't the one in Levi's place? Was the fact that Merle came to his rescue really something to put him at ease? Merle had already proven to Glenn that he had a short temper and wasn't afraid to be a little rough. Maybe, Glenn considered, he would be wise to not count his blessings just yet. Maybe Merle was upset with Levi for infringing on Merle's territory, for getting too close to Glenn and causing him pain and fear Merle had hoped to cause himself.

Merle must have seen the utter confusion and uncertainty in Glenn's eyes, because he immediately explained himself. "Hey, I may be an asshole sometimes," Merle admitted, "but I'm no monster. There's a difference between me just wantin' to mess with you an' him actin' like we're in a fuckin' prison yard from a bad movie. Jesus Christ..."

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	5. Ground Rules

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Chapter 5

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With much uncertainty in his mind over how to handle the situation he'd walked into, Merle stood awkwardly, staring at the boy he'd kidnapped earlier this morning. Merle enjoyed taunting people, threatening them, and even sometimes causing a bit of pain. To an extent, scaring and hurting people was amusing, but Levi had taken it too far. This wasn't funny anymore.

Glenn stood still and silently, staring at Merle with wide eyes, with his hand against the wall, maybe bracing himself so he wouldn't fall to the ground. The kid certainly looked like he might faint at any moment.

Merle observed as Glenn's breathing was actually becoming more frantic by the second. Maybe it had just taken this long for Glenn's body to fully process what had been happening and he was just now beginning to panic, now that he didn't need to anymore. Or maybe he was scared that Merle was going to do something to him. The older Dixon brother certainly hadn't done anything to make Glenn feel safe around him.

With the fingers of his right hand already gripping at the wall as though trying to find a hand hold, Glenn's left hand grabbed at the front of his own shirt, his trembling fingers entangling themselves in the fabric over his stomach as his breathing became even more frantic. He seemed to be grasping at anything and everything, just for the sake of having something tangible to touch, to hold on to, to keep himself figuratively grounded.

"Maybe you should sit down," Merle suggested awkwardly. He didn't want Glenn to pass out, and the kid definitely looked like he might.

Glenn didn't even seem to hear him as he stared at the floor. His body trembled and he no longer made any acknowledgement of Merle even being there in the room. The kid hadn't said a single word since Merle had pulled Levi away from him.

Merle took a step forward so that he could have reached out and touched the boy if he'd wanted to. He had no idea what to do or say, so he settled on something pretty simple. "Hey, you're alright now," Merle assured him. While he was certainly not in the habit of being nice to anyone, much less consoling someone who was so obviously traumatized, he didn't like the idea of just leaving the kid here by himself either.

Shaking his head very slightly as he continued breathing in and out rapid, panicked breaths, Glenn swayed a bit on his feet. The boy closed his eyes for a second, breathing in a shaking breath before looking back up at Merle again. Glenn in-took another shaking breath before stumbling slightly and starting to fall forward.

With a wince, Merle rushed toward the boy, catching Glenn in his arms and lowering him gently to the floor so that he was sitting with his back to the wall. Merle squatted down next to him, which caused Glenn to shrink down a bit.

"You need some water or something?" Merle asked awkwardly. What the hell was he supposed to do to fix this? "Levi didn't actually... uh..." He paused, not sure how to phrase the question. "I mean... you know... Did he?" Merle grimaced as he looked Glenn over. "I mean, I don't gotta know if you don't wanna tell me..." he added in an uncertain voice. On some level, Merle wanted to know exactly how far Levi had taken his sick little game, so he'd know how angry he should be at the other man, but on another level, he wondered if he should just stay ignorant to it and pretend it never happened. He frowned as he let his eyes scan the kid over so he could make his best guess at what exactly had happened. The boy had tears streaked down his face, bruises forming up and down his arms, and his jeans were literally down around his ankles. His boxer shorts were still in place though, so it seemed Merle had gotten here just in time.

Glenn shook his head as he continued breathing in and out shaking, uncertain breaths. Merle supposed that was meant to be an answer to his question, which meant that Merle had indeed been just in time when he came back upstairs. He didn't even want to think about what he'd have found in this room if he'd waited even a minute longer to check up on them.

Finally, the younger man's frantic breathing seemed to slow, but as he turned and looked toward Merle, he shrank down slightly. Glenn clearly didn't know what Merle's intentions were, and of course Merle couldn't blame him for feeling uncertain around the older man. Merle hadn't exactly been kind to him so far.

"Hey, I'm sorry he did that," Merle continued. "I really am, alright? When I told Brady to do whatever he wanted, I figured he'd just tie you up somewhere. I didn't count on him leavin' you with Levi."

Glenn leaned tiredly back against the wall, but kept his eyes on Merle, as if fully expecting the older man to attack him at any moment. Though Glenn was making no move to try to get up and run off, the younger man looked like he was clearly on edge, waiting for any cue that running would be a better choice than sticking around. He still seemed somewhat nervous to be around the older Dixon brother, and of course Merle wasn't surprised by that fact.

Merle let his eyes roam over Glenn once more. The boy didn't even seem to realize that his jeans had nearly been pulled completely off of him. He certainly wasn't moving to fix them. Merle frowned as he looked the kid over. Glenn looked so vulnerable and hurt. While Merle could easily find humor in bullying someone smaller than him, he found no humor in this. Glenn was practically still a literal kid. He was barely an adult, and here he was, with his clothing half-torn off him, cowered down on the floor, with fresh tears streaked down his cheeks. Merle didn't like this. Not even a little.

Sighing, Merle reached toward Glenn's ankles so he could help him pull his jeans back up. He couldn't stand seeing the kid like this. But his gesture seemed to be immediately misinterpreted.

Glenn gasped and slapped Merle's hands with his own as he crawled backward as much as the wall would allow. As Merle scowled down at him, he noticed Glenn's dark eyes immediately widen as he raised his trembling hands up in defense. "Don't," Glenn squeaked in a small voice.

"I was tryin' to help you," Merle explained with a frown. Glenn looked like he fully expected Merle to punch his lights out. The kid had probably slapped Merle's hands away due to his own reflexes, and was now wondering if that action was going to get him in trouble with the older man. Ordinarily, maybe Merle really would have hit him for it, but he didn't have the heart to do so now, not with it being extremely apparent what it was Glenn was so afraid of.

"I'm sorry," Glenn gasped in a small voice as he stared up at Merle with huge eyes. He began trembling even more than he had been before, but looked like he was seconds away from jumping up and making a run for it.

"I'm not gonna do anything to you," Merle assured him. He actually found that he was a little annoyed that Glenn seemed to think Merle was capable of such a sick, cruel behavior. Merle was nothing like Levi. Of course, Glenn had no way of knowing that, and Merle's actions thus far had very likely led Glenn to believe Merle, Levi, and probably all of them but Daryl had no problem whatsoever being as cruel as possible.

Even though he hated seeing Glenn half-undressed, he decided to just leave it alone. Glenn could take care of it on his own when he regained his bearings. Merle had a feeling that if he tried to fix the kid's pants again, Glenn might completely freak out.

Glenn flinched as the door opened yet again. Both he and Merle turned toward the sound in time to see Daryl making his way slowly and suspiciously toward them.

"What's goin' on?" Daryl frowned as his eyes scanned over Glenn, likely taking in his disheveled clothing, tear-stained eyes and cheeks, and his overall shaking and terrified appearance. "Merle?" Daryl looked then to his brother, who was only a mere few inches from Glenn. "What did you do?"

"Nothin," Merle promised.

... ... ...

"Don't look like nothin'" Daryl scowled as he looked over the scene. Glenn's jeans were all the way down to his ankles, and he was presently shrinking away from Merle. "What did you do, Merle?" Daryl asked again. He didn't want to believe Merle was the sort of a person who would take part in whatever sick thing had obviously just gone down in here, but the scene in front of Daryl now certainly didn't look good for backing up Merle's potential innocence.

"I didn't do nothin'," Merle insisted as he stood up and stared back at Daryl.

Daryl scowled at his brother and placed the bottle of water he'd brought up with him down on the side of one of the wooden crates near him. He'd left Glenn alone long enough to go outside, take a piss, smoke a cigarette, and find a bottle of water for Glenn, who hadn't been given anything to drink in the time he'd been here. He'd been gone for less than a half hour, and this is what he'd come back to?

"It was Levi," Glenn finally spoke up in a small voice.

Daryl shook his head. As much as he was glad to hear this wasn't Merle's doing, he was still completely livid. "I told you, Merle. You're responsible for all of this. You know your friends are dangerous. You bring someone back here to them, and they become your responsibility. If Levi, Brady, or Lawrence do anything cruel, it's on you. It's your fault this kid is here. Your fault they have access to him."

"An' I told you to keep him on a short leash, Daryl," Merle growled back at his younger brother. "You seemed so worried about him before. I figured you'd be watching his back a little bit. Took you less than five minutes to just throw him in this room and forget about him."

"I wouldn't have to keep an eye on him if you didn't bring him here in the first place," Daryl continued. This was not Daryl's fault, although he did actually feel guilty for it. He could have kept Glenn closer and watched him so something like this didn't happen. He'd only left him alone for less than a half hour, but he supposed that was more than enough time for one of the other guys to find him and take advantage of the situation. And of course, one of them had done just that.

"Well, he's not leaving," Merle argued.

"Why the hell not?" Daryl growled back. "What are you waiting for? What are you keeping him for? You just gonna keep him around until somebody ends up killing him?"

"You're right when you say I'm responsible for him. I am," Merle spoke. "He's my problem now. He's staying with us."

"Merle, you're being unreasonable," Daryl sighed. "Just admit defeat. Let him go."

"I ain't the only guy in this group, Daryl," Merle reminded him. "If I let him go now, there's no guarantee the others will go for it. There's more walkers out there now than before too, an' it's gettin' dark. We let him go now, and he'll be as good as dead."

"It doesn't matter, Merle. We've got no right-" Daryl started.

"I'm through talkin' about this," Merle stormed toward the door and exited, leaving Daryl and Glenn alone, with a very awkward sudden silence.

Daryl looked down at Glenn and frowned. He wondered if Merle really was completely without fault in whatever had just gone down. Glenn certainly seemed scared of the older Dixon brother. Maybe he'd told Daryl it was Levi who had hurt him just because he was scared of outing Merle. "What really happened, Glenn?" Daryl wondered.

Glenn looked down at his hands in his lap.

"Glenn," Daryl spoke again. "What did he do to you? Merle didn't do this, did he?" he wondered, gesturing toward Glenn's skewed clothing. Considering the possibility of Merle sexually assaulting someone made Daryl want to throw up, but he knew his brother could be pretty cruel. Sometimes Merle's actions were a surprise even to Daryl, so he couldn't discount the possibility, no matter how sick it made him feel.

Shaking his head, Glenn looked down at himself, straightening his shirt and pulling himself up with shaking limbs. With trembling fingers and arms, Glenn pulled his jeans back up into place and looked back toward Daryl, swallowing a lump in his throat and finally beginning to explain.

"I was going to go downstairs... I was going to try to leave," Glenn admitted, pausing to look nervously toward Daryl. He was likely worried the older man would be upset that he'd try to leave after Daryl specifically told him to stay in the small room he'd left him in. "Brady saw me open the door, because he was in the stairwell. He dragged me downstairs and asked Merle what he should do with me. Merle said he could do whatever he wanted, so he dragged me back up here, and Levi followed him." Glenn chose to end the story there, leaving Daryl to speculate on the rest.

"Where's Brady now?" Daryl wondered.

Glenn shrugged. "He went to get tape."

Daryl sighed and frowned. "And that meant you were alone with Levi." He nodded in understanding. "Did he hurt you? He didn't actually do anything, did he? I mean..." Daryl hesitated, trying to find the right words.

Glenn shook his head. "No. Merle came up here before he could do anything."

Daryl nodded. Maybe Levi's sick plan had been interrupted in time, but it was clearly just in time. Daryl shuddered to think what would have happened if Merle hadn't come upstairs when he did. If Glenn would have had to wait for Daryl to return, it likely would have already been too late.

"Merle made him leave," Glenn offered in defense of Daryl's brother.

"Don't ever be alone with Levi," Daryl offered some advice which probably seemed painfully obvious to the boy already.

Glenn nodded.

"I'll do what I can to keep him away from you," Daryl promised. "If he bothers you, just let me know. You don't gotta worry about me being okay with anything like that." Hopefully he could maintain control over this situation until he was able to help Glenn escape from it...

... ... ...

As he walked down the stairwell, Merle had to fight the urge to punch the wall in frustration. He actually felt guilty right now, which was a feeling he rarely felt, but certainly hated on the rare occasion he did feel it. He supposed he never had actually set limits with the other guys on what was appropriate and what was inappropriate regarding the people Merle grabbed up off the street. The other guys Merle had taken hadn't lasted even an hour, so Merle had never had to tell the members of his group what not to do with them.

Merle made his way into the room where the men spent most of their time. They'd brought chairs and a table into this room, stored their food stash here, and had even found a couple portable cots to be used as beds. It wasn't a bad living situation, really... except on days when Merle felt like he was an inch away from murdering the rest of the group in frustration with them. All of them except Daryl, of course.

Levi stood near a window and was whispering back and forth with Brady who was only a foot or so away from him. Lawrence sat in a chair a few feet away, silently listening to the other men.

"How old is he, Levi?" Brady's eyes darted toward Merle for a moment before looking back at Levi and lowering his voice, but not enough that Merle didn't still hear him. "You might be a pedophile, man."

"He's an adult, you fuckin' idiot." Levi shoved Brady lightly. "I didn't even do anything to him anyway. Don't mean I won't later though, you know?" Levi laughed. "Ain't no laws anymore either. Doesn't matter how old he is."

"Levi," Merle growled.

Turning toward Merle with a frown, Levi immediately spoke up in his own defense. "I was just messing with 'im, man, just like you did. Maybe I took it too far." Merle noticed the other man had three small scratches on his cheek, under his left eye, and two under his right. Glenn had probably clawed at the other man's face in a desperate attempt to get away from him. For some reason, Merle hadn't noticed those marks before.

Merle shook his head as he took a few steps forward, but kept his distance to keep control over himself. He really didn't want to snap and punch Levi in the face. He wanted to get along with these guys, even if he did hate them. They were a group, and they all watched each other's backs. Whether he actually liked them or not, the other men were useful in Merle's and Daryl's survival. They were a couple extra hands, which made both fending off walkers and collecting various resources all the easier. And of course having four men to watch your back instead of just one was certainly advantageous. Brady had even saved Merle once, when he was too drunk to know what he was doing and stumbled outside to take a piss in the middle of the night. Brady had followed him outside, probably when he noticed Merle was completely fucking plastered. The guy had taken out a walker that was inches away from ending Merle's life. All three of these guys had the potential to be useful, so Merle wanted to keep the peace with them if he could.

When Merle didn't say anything, Brady started speaking in Levi's defense. "Levi was just joking around with him, Merle. Glenn told me you took him up to the roof and threatened to throw him over. And then you were shooting as his feet earlier..."

"What I did was no different," Levi interrupted, looking at Merle. The guy actually looked kind of nervous. He knew he'd fucked up and was trying to back his way out of it. "You made 'im think he was going to get shot, or was gonna fall to his death. I made him think he was gonna get fucked," Levi laughed. "It's the same thing. We were both only tryin' to scare him. Just in different ways."

Merle grimaced and shook his head. "We need to set up some fuckin' ground rules."

"You said it, Merle-" Levi shrugged. "You said he was here for our amusement. We were gonna have fun with him. That's all I was doing... Havin' fun. And I guess he took it too seriously, an' he can't take a joke, so I accidentally made your little friend cry." Levi smiled slightly as though the memory of Glenn's tears was amusing. "But he looked pretty scared when you were shooting at him too," Levi continued. "And I'm sure he was plenty scared when he thought you was gonna toss him off the roof. Guess I scared 'im a little more than you did, but it's the same general idea. We were both just lookin' to scare him a little. I don't know why you care so much, or why you think what I did was worse than what you did..."

"Because what you did was fuckin' sick, Levi." Merle stared at him. He couldn't believe he even had to defend his anger on this. He never knew Levi was this twisted, and he sincerely doubted the other man was just messing around trying to scare Glenn. He'd seen the end of Levi's little game, and it involved Glenn's jeans being completely pulled down, and Levi's belt and pants being undone as well. That wasn't just a little joke. Levi meant business. But Merle saw no need to argue with him over his intentions, as long as he knew to keep his nasty hands off the kid in the future.

"Okay..." Levi nodded slowly. "So I'm guessin' my definition of 'fun' is different from yours..."

"Yeah, I guess so," Merle scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Makin' some kid think you're gonna shoot him or throw him off the roof ain't so bad. He's scared for a minute and then he knows he's alright. Threatening to fuckin' rape him is disgusting, an' gettin' so close to actually doin' it is even worse."

Levi shrugged. "I didn't know that was off limits."

Sighing heavily, Merle looked from Levi, to Brady, who was fidgeting with a roll of duct tape he held in his hands. He narrowed his eyes for a moment at the tape, but figured he didn't need to ask. He looked over toward Lawrence who had been silent this whole time and just stared back at him blankly.

"Maybe you guys should just stay away from 'im," Merle suggested. He had control over himself. He knew he could keep himself from taking out his anger on his captive to the degree some of the others might. In Merle's hands, Glenn might not always be comfortable or feel totally secure, but at least he'd be certain not to be beaten to death during fit of rage from his captor, and he certainly wouldn't need to fear being sexually assaulted.

"Give us another chance." Levi frowned. "I won't do that again. I promise. You told Brady to do whatever he wanted so I thought it applied to anyone... I really was just playing."

"Ask me before you do anything to him." Merle looked at all three men. "I didn't bring him here just so he could be outright tortured, and I certainly didn't bring 'im here so you could rape him." He scowled at Levi. "You gotta learn some restraint, man." Merle forced a laugh, but he really found no humor in this situation. He was going to have to keep a close watch on Levi from now on, and that was really annoying.

Levi laughed. "I'll be nicer," he promised.

Merle shook his head. "Y'all fuckers are all crazy," he sighed as he walked back toward the door and made his way downstairs.

He made his way down to the ground floor and carefully opened the door leading outside, looking up and down the alley to check for walkers before closing the door behind him and leaning his back against it.

Merle in-took a deep breath as he contemplated their situation. Maybe Daryl was right, for once. Maybe he needed to let the kid go. Teasing Glenn was fun, but seeing him in fear, panic, and pain after what Levi did to him was almost heartbreaking. And now that he'd seen how terrified the kid had been when he thought Levi was going to hurt him, it kind of took the fun out of the whole situation. Merle remembered the look on the boy's face when he'd shot at his feet this morning, or when he'd dragged him over toward the roof's edge. Glenn had looked so scared, and it was pretty much the same look he'd had on his face when Merle had walked in on him and Levi. Merle actually felt bad now, and not just for what Levi had done.

Maybe, he thought, he should just accept that this little game hadn't worked out. Perhaps he should just let Glenn go so he wouldn't have to worry about being responsible for him anymore. Knowing that Levi had attacked the boy, and knowing that the only reason Levi and Glenn had ever met in the first place was because of him, made Merle feel extremely guilty, which was one of the most foreign and confusing feelings he'd ever experienced.

He didn't know Glenn as a person... not even a little bit. But he knew the guy was just a young kid. Probably hadn't even seen his twenty-fifth birthday yet. He was all alone in the city, trying to survive in a terrifying and cruel world all by himself, and Merle had to grab him up and basically hand him over to a violent rapist. Merle had really fucked this kid over, and he felt awful because of it.

Letting Glenn go now would be dangerous to the boy though. It was growing dark. He wouldn't have time to find someplace safe to stay before night fell. And of course, Levi, Brady, and Lawrence might not go for it if Merle decided to release their captive now. Maybe keeping Glenn here, under his watch was the safest bet for the kid's sake. At least if Glenn was here, Merle could keep a close watch on him and know none of the others snuck away after him, and he'd know that no walkers had claimed him.

Shaking his head softly to himself, Merle looked back up and down the alley again and grabbed a carton of cigarettes out of his pocket. He lit one up and took a long drag. This situation was turning into a colossal mess.

He glanced over across the alley at the baseball bat he'd grabbed out of Glenn's hand when they first met and took a few steps forward to reclaim it. Glenn was going to want that back when they let him go. Merle placed the bat up against the wall while he finished his cigarette and tried to think of how the hell he was going to make this disaster alright again. He owed Glenn a safe way out of this. He just wasn't sure what that way out was going to be... and he certainly wasn't entirely sure why he even really cared about this kid...

xxxxxx


	6. Distraction

xxxxxx

Chapter 6

xxxxxx

Daryl frowned as he looked across the room at Glenn, who was seemingly finally asleep, with his arms wrapped tightly around himself, as he lay curled up in a tiny ball and slumped against one of the wooden crates near the wall. In the dim light provided by a few candles Daryl had lit, he could see that by now Glenn's skin was marked in various places with bruises. The poor kid looked completely and utterly exhausted. Daryl's brother's choice to kidnap this boy was certainly making Daryl's life a lot more difficult. He couldn't help but to feel responsible for Glenn's safety.

None of this was Daryl's fault of course, but he was fully aware of the situation, and he was fully aware of what the various members of this group were capable of. Levi was most certainly the worst of the group. He had killed at least two people who had done nothing to deserve it, and those were just the ones Daryl knew about. Daryl was also fairly certain Glenn was not the first person Levi had sexually assaulted after the world had gone to hell. Levi had probably even been in the business of molesting people long before the apocalypse began. Daryl was usually pretty good at reading people, and he never liked Levi. He could just tell the guy was an awful person, even since before he really ever got to know him.

Brady and Lawrence were both typically pretty quiet, with Brady being more likely to get outwardly angry, but with either of them quite capable of being extraordinarily immoral. Brady seemingly had no sympathy or empathy for anyone, but Lawrence was as charming as he was deceitful. The main difference between the two was that Brady was more of an open book. People usually knew not to trust Brady. Not everyone knew Lawrence was not to be trusted either.

And then there was Merle. Daryl knew him best of all. While he was pretty sure Merle would never sexually assault someone (despite his tendency to yell out sexual comments, seemingly just to make the people he enjoyed tormenting feel uncomfortable,) Daryl did know that Merle could be extremely rough and violent when he wanted to be. The older Dixon was not above dishing out undeserved physical violence.

Because he knew how all these people could be, it then became his responsibility to keep Glenn safe from them until such a point when he could help the kid escape their clutches. Not because he really cared about Glenn as a person... Hell, he didn't even know the guy. Daryl just didn't like the idea of knowingly allowing another human being to be tormented and hurt for no reason. He didn't care what happened to Glenn in the long run. As far as Daryl cared, the kid could go off on his own and die tomorrow without Daryl ever knowing it happened. It was none of his business how Glenn's life went or how long it lasted. But right now, Glenn was here, and Daryl was here, and he couldn't just stand by and allow Merle's friends to treat someone with such cruelty and disrespect.

As he continued looking across the room at Glenn, he realized the kid was no longer asleep. The younger man continued laying still and silent, however, staring quietly right back at Daryl in the darkness. Maybe he'd never been asleep in the first place...

"Why do you stay with these people?" Glenn finally spoke up. It seemed his fear of Daryl had all but completely vanished during the day, and of course Daryl wasn't surprised. So far,everyone who had really even interacted with the kid had been quite violent, except Daryl, who was the only one of them to consistently come to his defense, and more times than once.

"Merle's my brother," Daryl explained simply with a shrug.

"What about the other guys?" Glenn wondered, his tone somewhat bitter. "Why would you want to be with all these people? They're all awful."

Daryl offered a dry, sarcastic laugh. He couldn't exactly deny that. He didn't really want to have this conversation with Glenn though. He stayed with the group because he wanted to stick with his brother, and his brother wanted to stick with the rest of them. Merle and his friends were a package deal, unfortunately. Daryl simply shrugged.

"I'm leaving when I get the chance," Glenn told him.

Daryl raised his eyebrows as he looked over at the young man, who was practically scowling back at him. He was surprised Glenn would offer up that bit of information. He must have honestly trusted that telling Daryl of his plans wouldn't backfire.

"I don't care if they kill me," Glenn continued, his voice sounding determined and almost angry. "They're going to kill me anyway, eventually. Why wait and let them hurt me first? I'm not staying here just so your friends can do whatever they want to me before I inevitably die anyway. I'd rather make a run for it and risk being eaten alive by walkers."

Frowning, Daryl stared across the room at Glenn. While he couldn't assure the boy that Daryl could keep him safe for any extended amount of time, he wasn't sure if he could trust Glenn to read the situation well enough to choose the best time to sneak away. He didn't want to see Glenn get himself killed, by walkers or by one of the men in the group. "Why don't you just stick with me," Daryl suggested. "I promise to help you get away when the time is right. If you run off an' it's ill-timed, you're just gonna get yourself hurt."

Glenn shook his head and refused to give an answer one way or the other.

"Listen, Glenn," Daryl spoke from across the room, lowering his voice so that no one who wasn't in the room would be able to overhear. "I been wanting to get away from these guys for a while now. Once I convince Merle to leave, he an' I are out of here. And as soon as that happens, we can take you with us. Then you can go your separate way when we get someplace safer where leaving you on your own won't mean certain death for you. Trust me - I want you to be able to get outta here too, but if you get impatient and run off at the wrong time, you'll end up dead."

"No," Glenn refused. "I'm not going anywhere with Merle. He's the reason I'm here right now. He shot at me and threatened to throw me off the roof... And I'm not convinced he wouldn't kill me just for fun if he gets bored."

Daryl sighed. "He's a flawed man, but he's not a bad person. He'd of never hurt you like Levi did. And I don't think he'd actually kill you. He can be a little rough, but he's a good man deep down."

"Yeah," Glenn scoffed. "Whatever you say."

"Give 'im a chance, Glenn," Daryl requested. "Merle's not gonna do anything to you. He knows I'd be pissed if he did. Just stick with us for now. You won't have to stay here long, but you gotta plan your exit carefully. I can help you do that."

Glenn rolled his eyes and shook his head subtly.

"I'm not gonna chase you down or anything if you run off, but you should know from experience that the other guys won't pay you the same respect," Daryl warned.

Without offering a reply, Glenn shifted his body so that he was sort of facing away from Daryl. He curled himself up into a tight ball.

With his back against the door, Daryl leaned back and closed his eyes. He hoped Glenn didn't get himself killed, but he supposed it wasn't his place to babysit the kid. If Glenn wanted to run off when he got the chance, and he died because of it, Daryl guessed that was his right.

But Glenn wasn't going anywhere tonight. Daryl had always been a light-sleeper, so he knew the second anything was amiss, he'd wake up. He was leaning against the room's only exit. Glenn wasn't getting out, and no one else was getting in.

... ... ...

When Glenn woke up, it was to the sound of someone pounding against the room's door. For a moment, Glenn feared the worst - that walkers had gotten into the building and were inevitably going to claw their way into this room too. But the pounding was too deliberate. It wasn't dead, hungry hands, clawing mindlessly at the wooden door. It was clearly someone alive, knocking for the purpose of being heard by those inside the room.

Glenn opened his eyes and silently watched as Daryl stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. Though he was now alone in the room, Glenn was very certain the exit was still guarded, as he could hear Daryl's voice and someone else's voice arguing on the other side of the door.

Glenn perked up and stared ahead of himself, keeping his gaze fixed on the door which Daryl had just stepped out of. He tried to make out what was being said by the men outside, but the voices were muffled and unclear. He could hear at least two men arguing just outside, and one of the voices was certainly Daryl's. He couldn't make out what anyone was saying. He just knew they didn't sound happy.

"We gotta go," Daryl spoke as he hurriedly opened the door and made his way over to Glenn. Merle was close behind him.

"Why?" Glenn stood himself up and backed into the corner as Daryl and Merle closed in on him.

"Huge herd of walkers coming down the street. The stairwell ain't very secure and I'm not confident they won't get in here. We need to get out before they're too close," Merle explained in a rushed voice. Glenn was surprised Merle had even answered him instead of just grabbing him and forcing him to go with them.

Glenn didn't mind Merle's plan at all. If they were all out on the open road, he'd have a better chance of finding a good time to get himself lost from these people. So he followed the two brothers out of the room, sure to stick close by them as they neared the others. He certainly didn't want to get too close to Levi again, and though he couldn't call either of the Dixon brothers a friend at this point, they at least seemed to have some sort of morals... Of course, Merle's were kind of hit and miss, but Daryl even almost seemed to be looking out for Glenn on some level.

While they made their way down the stairs, the other three men made their way down as well, but no one acknowledged the events from the previous night, and for that Glenn was glad. The other guys probably thought what Levi did was funny.

As the six men made their way downstairs, they were all seemingly alert, almost shouting back and forth at each other their various plans.

"Make sure you're ready when I open the door," Brady called out to the group as they made their way to the ground floor. "There weren't any out in the alley a few minutes ago, but there could be now."

"Try not to use your gun if you don't have to," Daryl shouted to someone. "I'll cover you with my crossbow if it's just one or two. Let's not waste bullets or be louder than we have to be."

Glenn looked from one man to the next. For the most part, they didn't seem to be paying too much attention to him. They were focused on the urgency of the situation. If he played his cards right, Glenn might be able to make his escape soon.

As he glanced around the group, Glenn locked eyes with Lawrence, who was carrying the backpack the men had taken from Glenn the previous morning. The bag looked heavy, and of course Glenn knew it was just as heavy as it looked... Unless his captors had taken anything from it, the backpack was mostly full of canned food. Lawrence shoved Glenn's bag toward him and Glenn eagerly slid his arms through its straps. He was going to need his supplies once he got away from these brutes, so he glady accepted his bag back, even though Lawrence probably only hoped to slow him down by giving it to him.

When they began to file out the door, however, Glenn began feeling a bit cheated and unprepared. His baseball bat, which Merle had thrown on the ground in the alley was no longer there. Someone must have gone out and collected it. He looked around the five men. They were all armed, and thus all prepared to deal with any walkers. Glenn had no weapon... no way to defend himself in the very likely event of walkers stumbling into their path. He needed to have a weapon. Even if he weren't planning on running off, he hoped these guys wouldn't expect him to travel unarmed. That was extremely dangerous. Even in a group, people easily got separated in the chaos of fending off larger groups of walkers. It simply wasn't safe for Glenn to leave his life in the hands of the men who basically kidnapped him.

"I need a weapon," Glenn spoke up, eying his baseball bat which had been stuffed into a sort of tool-belt Brady was wearing.

"No you don't," Merle disagreed.

Glenn frowned, stepping forward toward Brady in preparation of just going for his bat anyway. He was quickly learning how to communicate with these people. They weren't the sort to just be talked to and reasoned with like mature adults. If he wanted something, he was just going to have to be forceful about it. That's how the rest of them would do it.

Merle reached out his hand, easily stopping Glenn in his tracks. "We can't risk you turning on us and using the weapon against us, Glenn." Merle looked almost sympathetic as he explained his reasoning. "We'll keep you sorta in the center of us all, alright? We'll take care of the walkers. Don't worry about it."

Glenn shook his head. "No. I need a weapon. I'm not running around the streets unarmed." He didn't trust Merle's word, and he certainly didn't trust all these violent idiots to keep him alive even if they tried. Glenn had done fine keeping himself alive for this long, and now that he was with a larger, slower group, some of whom had already threatened his life or purposefully hurt him, he wasn't about to just leave his fate in their hands.

"Aw, don't be scared. We'll keep you safe, little kid." Levi leaned toward him, reaching out his arm to wrap Glenn's shoulders in a sort of hug.

"Don't touch me," Glenn yelled as he turned and violently swatted Levi's hand away. As he looked up at Levi, Glenn was finally able to see the damage he'd managed to inflict on the other man the previous night. He had small scratches on his face below his eyes. It wasn't much, but it had obviously been enough to make the man angry enough to hit him very hard right after it had happened. Glenn also noticed something angry in the other man's eyes, though Levi was trying to hide it with a forced grin.

"Come on; don't be like that." Levi pouted as he reached toward Glenn again. "I didn't mean to hurt you last night. I was only playing. Don't be so sensitive."

Glenn swatted Levi's hand away once again, shoved him back as hard as he could manage, and balled his own hand up into a fist. Without leaving himself any time to think better of it, Glenn swung his hand as hard as he could, punching Levi right in the face. The large, disgusting man was most certainly not 'just playing' last night, and Glenn didn't appreciate the unnecessary physical contact. "I said, don't touch me," Glenn growled, practically shaking from anger and the adrenaline coursing through his body.

Levi growled as he brought his hand up to his now-bleeding nose for a split second before lunging toward Glenn.

Feeling his eyes grow wide, Glenn braced himself for the impact as the larger man completely tackled him to the ground.

Before Glenn knew it, Levi was hovering over him, straddling him and holding both his wrists down with one hand, crushing them harshly against the asphalt road below them. Levi's other hand was balled into a fist, which he used to swing out and hit Glenn.

Glenn tugged at this arms and tried to throw the larger man off him. There was nothing he could do to defend himself considering both of his hands were being crushed in Levi's harsh, rough paw. All he could do was squeeze his eyes shut and continue to try to throw the larger man off him as Levi's fist connected first with Glenn's jaw, and then with his cheek.

Levi only managed to get a in few harsh swings before someone was pulling him up off Glenn. But Glenn wasn't done yet. He was more furious than he'd ever been in his life. Levi was a bully, a sexual predator, and an all-around disgusting human being. When Glenn had hit him, Levi had deserved it. And he deserved it when Glenn dragged himself up off the ground and swung at him again.

Glenn managed to hit him only once more before someone was behind him, wrapping both of their thick arms around his body and pulling him back.

Breathing deep, angry breaths, Glenn observed the men in front of him. Daryl and Lawrence were holding Levi back from Glenn, and Levi looked like he was fully prepared to go after Glenn with full force if he could. Glenn was lucky the other guys seemingly didn't want him dead yet, because Levi was certainly capable of ending his life right here in the alley if he wanted to, and if he were permitted to do so.

The arms around Glenn's torso were also around his upper-arms, preventing him from even trying to pull his way out of their grasp. "Let go of me!" Glenn yelled as he attempted to wriggle free. He still didn't even know who was holding onto him.

"Calm down," Merle's voice instructed, very near Glenn's ear. "Just leave it alone, boy... We don't got time for fight club in the damn alley, alright?"

Glenn was about to say something back to Merle when he heard a piercing scream from somewhere behind him. At that point, Merle loosened his grip and spun around toward the noise in time to see Brady fighting off about three walkers all at once. The geeks must have heard the men's scuffle, and in the hectic, violent moment, no one had heard or seen the undead approaching.

Brady yelled a loud, horrible shriek as one of the walkers bit at his arm, ripping a huge chunk out of his shoulder. The man already had a gigantic gash in one of his ears and blood oozing down the side of his face. That had probably been the reason for his initial scream. Everyone was distracted by Glenn and Levi's fight and hadn't even thought to keep an eye out for walkers.

As the other four men set to work dispatching the walkers who had already begun to devour their still-screaming friend, Glenn stumbled backward, looking behind himself to see that there were absolutely no walkers in that direction.

He looked back toward the scene where the rest of the men were fighting off the geeks. Levi and Merle were firing their weapons over and over again at each new zombie who happened to stumble toward them. Daryl was firing arrows from a crossbow, retrieving said arrows, and firing them again at the next walkers. Lawrence was screaming Brady's name, actually showing emotion for once as he shoved a walker away from Brady and stomped on its skull. More and more of them kept coming, filing into the alley. No one was paying attention to Glenn.

As horrifying as the scene before him was, Glenn knew he had no time to feel bad for Brady. He couldn't help the man, both because he had no weapon, and because Brady was already doomed now that he'd been bitten. Though the sight in front of Glenn was violent, gruesome, and even heartbreaking on some level, there was nothing Glenn could do... And the situation was actually making a very convenient distraction.

He looked behind himself once more as he took yet another step back away from the others. There were still no walkers there... He made one last glance toward the group, noticing Daryl had made brief eye-contact with him in that same moment. The archer shook his head very slightly and gave Glenn a silent 'don't do it,' look, but Glenn didn't comply. Daryl wasn't going to stop him. This was his chance.

So he turned away from the increasingly large mob of walkers and ran the other way as fast as he could.

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	7. Glenn's Solitary Adventure

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Chapter 7

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Glenn was finally on his own again, how he liked it. Unfortunately, he was still very much unarmed, and thus very ill-prepared to deal with any walkers he came across. Avoiding them, running past them, or quickly planning alternate routes at the last second worked fine a majority of the time, but sometimes he needed to actually fight them, and he was not at all prepared to do so.

Nevertheless, he had no choice, so he ran on, hoping to find some kind of store where he might find a useful weapon. He knew there was a hardware store about a mile away - he had delivered pizzas to the employees there occasionally before the apocalypse - but he wasn't sure if he could get there without a weapon.

He ran and ran, ignoring all the geeks who took note of him and began stumbling after him, and ignoring the fact that he was exhausted from running on very little sleep and even less food. None of the men in this group had offered Glenn anything to eat since he'd been here, and even yesterday, Glenn hadn't eaten anything but a small packet of crackers early in the morning. He had planned on focusing all his efforts on getting out of the city and not worrying about smaller things - such as eating - until he had accomplished his main task. He didn't count on getting out of Atlanta being such a difficult objective.

Though he planned on turning down the next street in order to more quickly reach the hardware store, as soon as he got to it, it quickly became apparent that turning there would not be a good idea. At least twenty walkers were down that street, just within the first block. Many of them turned toward him as he passed the street, their eyes dead and unfocused and their rotten mouths hanging open.

"Shit," Glenn mumbled to himself as he was forced to run onward. He could try the next street instead. It wouldn't be that far out of his way. At any rate, he hoped to get off this main street soon so that if any of his captors came after him, they wouldn't spot him right away.

He made his way down the next street, growing more and more tired with each step he took. He'd been so physically drained over the past day. Lack of sleep, hunger, and exhaustion from his terrifying encounter with Levi weighed him down as he continued running with every last ounce of energy he had in him. While it was true that he had some food in his bag, he certainly didn't have time to stop and go through his backpack now. He had much more important things to deal with first. Glenn ran on...

Finally, he reached the street the hardware store was on, turned back down it, and ran until he reached it, looking to his left at where he had seen the mass of walkers earlier. They weren't there now. They'd probably tried to follow him, but hopefully they got confused since he turned down a few different streets. He hoped he wouldn't meet them again.

Glenn looked around himself carefully as he stepped into the hardware store. This store, unsurprisingly, was in worse shape than most of them. It seemed a lot of people desperately needing a weapon had come here first.

Broken glass from the store's front windows littered the floor and most of the tools were already taken. A few packages of nuts and bolts as well as several loose nails were thrown messily on the floor and small screw drivers and wrenches were scattered there as well. A tiny, three inch screwdriver wouldn't make a very useful weapon, after all.

Glenn made his way down the aisles, picking up the longest screwdriver he could find for now, just in case he didn't find anything any better. He gripped it carefully in his hand and walked along. Of course all the hammers and axes were gone. There were a few flimsy hand saws and a chainsaw left on one of the shelves, but those wouldn't really do much good. He would just have to settle on using the screwdriver. It wasn't the best weapon he'd ever found, but it was better than nothing. Now he just needed to get out of the city.

He made his way back toward the door, observing the area before stepping outside. His next order of business would be to find a vehicle. He wasn't sure that was going to happen any time soon, however, as he'd already searched these streets for usable cars in the past and had come up empty handed.

He walked quickly but quietly down the streets. He was so tired, but he needed to get as much distance between himself and Merle's group as he could, and as fast as he could. His legs already felt like jello and his lungs already burned from the sprint he'd already made to get this far, but he had no choice but to continue.

Up ahead, Glenn could see a small group of walkers, but each street he passed didn't look much better. None of them were completely cleared. He'd have to just choose a street, take it, and hope for the best. He had a fair-sized screwdriver now, so if he needed to fight off one of the geeks, he certainly could.

Glenn turned down one of the streets and moved as quietly and quickly as possible, avoiding any walkers he encountered, for now at least. Up ahead, an even larger group of undead corpses were pacing around. The whole area seemed more populated today, probably because of Merle's idiotic target practice the former day.

Wincing quietly to himself, Glenn turned down a long alley. It wasn't until he was halfway down it that he began to notice zombies trickling in from the other end. Glenn stopped in his tracks and turned back the way he'd come, but several zombies were coming in from that direction now as well. He looked around himself, surveying the area and hoping to find an easy solution to this problem. Up above him was an escape ladder, but it seemed slightly out of reach as though someone had pulled it up to prevent anyone from breaking into the building it accompanied. Glenn jumped up, trying to reach it.

"Damn it," Glenn whispered to himself. He was nowhere near reaching the ladder. He jumped toward it again, reaching his hand up as high as possible and feeling fear bubble up inside him when he still failed to grip onto it. He'd just have to get through the walkers instead. There were three coming from the way he'd come, and four coming from the other direction. He chose to go toward the group of three, of course, even if it meant he had to lose some of his progress.

He ran up to the first geek, shoving his screwdriver up through its eye and then pulling it back out as the zombie fell heavily to the ground. The next walker stumbled toward him, with its eyes glassy and dried blood dribbled down its chin. Glenn stabbed the screw driver through its forehead and it went down. Unfortunately, the walker took his screwdriver with it. Glenn reached down and grabbed the screwdriver, pulling it up out of the geek's skull just in time to dispatch the next one in a similar fashion.

Ignoring the zombies who had been gaining on him from the other side, Glenn ran onward, back out of the alley and into the street. Perhaps finding a place to stay the night would be a wiser choice, so the swarm of walkers seemingly attracted by Merle's gunfire might thin out a little bit. But then, that increased the chances of someone from Merle's group finding him and re-capturing him.

Completely out of breath, Glenn ran onward, choosing another alley and jogging down it. This alley had a chain link fence at the end, but just as Glenn was about to vault over it, he noticed several walkers making their way toward him from the other side.

Glenn whimpered softly to himself as he turned back around. Zombies were now spilling into the alley from where he'd entered it. He looked around for another fire escape, finding a ladder that wasn't pulled up quite so high as the last one.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Glenn reached up toward the ladder and pulled it down. Unfortunately, the ladder didn't seem entirely secure. It fell down hard, crashing against the pavement with a loud clanging sound and proceeding to completely fall to the ground with another, even louder clanging sound.

Glenn winced and looked back toward the zombies coming his way. Surely even more would follow after all that noise. Glenn reached for the ladder, trying to pick it up and somehow re-attach it to the fire escape. When his plan looked like it wasn't going to work, he realized he was going to have to fight his way through the walkers. There was no way around it.

So Glenn ran toward them, stabbing his screwdriver one by one, through their skulls, but more and more of them kept coming, and as they came, they backed Glenn further and further into the alley. Before he knew it, his back was up against the chain link fence as five walkers snapped their teeth at him.

Glenn couldn't help the panicked cry that tore from his throat as he kicked one of the walkers back so he'd have space to slam his screwdriver though the skull of another one. Now there were four, but they were all coming at him at once. Glenn tiredly kicked out each time one approached him until he had three of them far back enough that he was confident he could finish off just one before another got back to him. He stabbed it through the skull, but as it fell, it took his screwdriver with it, just as the other one had before. It was stuck in the geek's head.

As the three remaining zombies came at him, Glenn kicked and shoved them backward, looking for a window of opportunity. They were too close together for him to dodge away between them without getting bitten, and he could hear that the zombies on the other side of the fence were getting dangerously close behind him. Since his only weapon was presently embedded in a walker's skull, Glenn couldn't really do much but try to shove or kick the walkers away far enough to give himself the space he needed to escape unharmed.

Just as he was ready to kick one of them back again, with a very tired leg, a familiar arrow flew through its skull, the point coming out its eye on the other side. That zombie fell forward, right on top of Glenn, bringing him down with it as another arrow pierced the skull of the second of the three walkers. It fell down on top of Glenn as well.

These walkers were grown adults, and their weight on top of Glenn prevented him from standing back up. The third walker fell to its knees as it reached toward him. Glenn tried to shrink back, but could barely move. Finally he saw the familiar sight of his own old baseball bat colliding with the side of the geek's head, knocking it off its feet as whoever held the bat beat the zombie's skull in and finished it off.

Glenn shook visibly as his saviors made themselves known, as if Glenn hadn't already known who they were. While he was happy to be alive, he wished the people who had come to his aid had been anyone else.

Daryl pulled the two corpses up off Glenn and then offered his hand down, pulling Glenn up to his feet. Glenn exhaled a tired breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, but his relief didn't last long. Within seconds, Daryl had stepped forward and was entirely too close for comfort. Still gripping his crossbow in what Glenn interpreted as a possibly threatening manner, Daryl ran his hand up Glenn's arm, pushing his sleeve up and turning the boy's arm over in his hand before repeating the action with Glenn's other arm. He then moved down to Glenn's stomach, pushing his t-shirt upward.

For a moment, Glenn wondered if he had misjudged Daryl entirely. Maybe he was just like Levi. If he were, Glenn would have no defense against him. If Daryl was bold enough to attack Glenn right here in the alley, in front of everyone else, who could Glenn hope to defend him? Merle would probably let his brother do whatever he wanted, and the other guys didn't seem to care about Glenn one way or the other.

Glenn stiffened and held his breath as he contemplated shoving Daryl away and making a desperate run for it. But then he quickly realized Daryl's hands weren't groping him, nor was the gesture intended to be a threat. The older man was checking him for bites. Glenn had come pretty close to getting bitten too, so the gesture actually made sense.

"I'm not bitten," Glenn gasped in a voice that unfortunately betrayed his fear.

"You sure?" Daryl put his hand on Glenn's upper arm and took a step back, looking Glenn up and down once more.

"I'm sure," Glenn promised, looking down at himself and following Daryl's example, making extra certain that none of the geeks had snagged him during a burst of adreneline without Glenn noticing.

"Good." Daryl clapped him on the shoulder and then made his way back toward the walkers to collect his arrows out of their skulls.

Glenn swallowed a lump in his throat as he looked over toward Merle, who stared at him like he thought Glenn was an idiot. Glenn noticed Merle was holding onto the baseball bat Brady had taken from him. He looked around. Levi and Lawrence were near the end of the alley. They must not have run as fast as Daryl and Merle. Brady was nowhere to be seen. Glenn supposed that meant he hadn't survived the attack in the alley. Glenn hoped the other men didn't blame him for that...

He looked back toward Merle, who simply shook his head as though annoyed with Glenn, but at the same time amused with the situation.

"Didn't I tell you not to run off?" Merle smirked...

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	8. Trust

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Chapter 8

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No one even needed to threaten Glenn to get him to go along with the menacing group of men this time. Of course, he would have rather not gone with them, but he knew running away would only make them more angry than they probably already were. He still wasn't sure why exactly they wanted him to stay, but he was willing to go along with them for now, if only because he was scared of what their reactions would be if he didn't.

Glenn was sure to stay close to Daryl and his brother as the five men walked along looking for a suitable place to set up their next camp. It was strange that Merle actually seemed like a safer alternative than someone else. Daryl seemed the most trustworthy, and of course Levi was definitely the least. Glenn still had very little of an idea of what to make of Lawrence, but he did know the mysterious man had yet to defend him in any way. At least both Daryl and Merle had stood up for Glenn in some way. Perhaps Lawrence was indifferent about the group's captive, and though that wasn't outright cruel, it certainly wasn't a good thing. To stand back and watch someone else get hurt when you have the power to do something to stop it was definitely immoral.

As he glanced subtly from one man to the next, Glenn wondered how many of them were completely pissed at him for fighting with Levi and for then running off. No one had been violent with him since they'd reunited, but people didn't exactly seem jovial either. Of course, one of their people had died today, so any darkness looming over the group very likely had to do with that, but Glenn couldn't feel confident that they weren't all upset with him at the same time.

He knew Levi wasn't pleased with him since they'd been in an actual physical fight earlier, but he couldn't tell if the others were upset or not. When Levi had tried to put his arm around Glenn that morning, Glenn couldn't bring himself to just stand by and let the other man grope him. He fought back, and in the commotion and confusion, Brady had been killed. Even Glenn blamed himself for the other man's death, if only partially. Surely the others in this group might come to the same conclusion. Glenn felt guilty for the other man's death... and he didn't even like Brady. It would be strange for the remaining members of the group not to blame Glenn for Brady's death. After all, if Glenn hadn't been there, there would have been no distraction, and Brady would still be alive.

"Merle," Daryl whispered to his brother while the other two men in their group were far enough behind so that the conversation could be relatively private. He didn't seem to mind that Glenn was within ear shot though. "We need to go off on our own, without Lawrence and Levi," Daryl suggested.

Merle turned toward his brother and frowned. "What? Why?" he wondered.

"Well," Daryl scoffed and practically rolled his eyes as he explained. "Levi is a violent, murderer and rapist who honestly eats more than the rest of us combined... and Lawrence is kind of a sociopath. We don't need 'em. Whatever happened to it just bein' you an' me?"

"It don't hurt to have a few extra people around," Merle countered. "They may not be the best people in the world, but they're helpful. I ain't sayin' I even like 'em most of the time, but you can't deny that stickin' with them has worked out in our favor most of the time."

"Maybe at first." Daryl frowned. "I can't remember the last time Levi was helpful, and I've been tempted punch 'im in the face more than once over the past couple days."

"Levi did one thing, Daryl," Merle glanced very briefly toward Glenn but then back at his brother within the same second. "I talked to 'im about it. He ain't gonna do nothin' like that again. I ain't sayin' I want to stay with 'em forever, but there's no harm in keepin' 'em around either. I think we're better off sticking with a group for now. At least until we're out of the city. We might need a few extra hands to fend off walkers until then."

"We'll get rid of those two when we're outta the city then?" Daryl raised an eyebrow toward Merle.

Merle nodded as he seemed to carefully think this over. "I might be able to get on board with that idea... Those guys can be useful, but they really are more trouble than they're worth when there's no walkers around. They slow us down too. Not to mention that lately they're both bigger bastards than even I am." Merle offered a raspy laugh. "I'll consider it... But what about him." Merle gestured toward Glenn.

Glenn stayed silent as he looked from one brother to the other, listening to their conversation as they talked about him as though he wasn't right there beside them.

"He can stay with us as long as he wants," Daryl suggested. "And he can leave when he wants," he added.

Merle narrowed his eyes and glanced toward Glenn. "I really was just messin' with you before," he noted. "Just jokin' around. Having a bit of fun." Glenn noticed the older man neither agreed nor disagreed with Daryl's suggestion that Glenn be permitted to leave.

Glenn raised his eyebrows and offered a dry, sarcastic laugh. "Yeah... that was really fun, Merle."

With a small smirk, Merle elbowed Glenn's shoulder. "You just gotta learn my sense of humor, boy. I didn't really shoot you, did I? And did I really throw you over the roof? You're fine. Just ask Daryl. If I don't actually injure you, there's no harm done."

Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "He's right, Glenn. You should'a seen us when we were kids. If anything, Merle's been goin' easy on you compared to how he used to treat me."

"I threaten out of love, Glenn," Merle laughed. "I shot at you and threatened to toss you over the roof 'cause I like ya."

Glenn frowned, not appreciating the strange sense of humor the older Dixon brother possessed, especially not after the inappropriate behavior of Merle's friend the previous night. He never wanted to hear about any of these guys liking him ever again. Especially considering none of them even knew him. They only saw him as someone smaller than them, who they could push around and torture.

"We should try to ditch these guys sooner, Merle." Daryl got back on the subject he'd brought up before. "We can get out of the city without 'em. I don't like how Levi treats Glenn, and even if Glenn's not going to stay with us, I don't want to be around someone like that. An' I don't wanna be around someone like Lawrence either."

Glenn silently watched and listened to the brothers talk. He wondered what Lawrence had done to make the Dixon brothers dislike the man. Neither of them seemed to like him, but they'd never discussed an actual reason for feeling that way. At least, not in Glenn's presence.

"That's easier said than done," Merle noted with a tired sigh. "I'm startin' to get sick of 'em too. Ain't no good havin' extra people to watch our backs when they go an' act like that... They was supposed to make our lives easier, an' that's just not happening anymore. But how are we just gonna ditch them? I think we can lose 'em easier once we're outta the city."

The younger Dixon brother shook his head. "We can ditch them any time. Wait until night, while they're asleep. We'll have you or me on watch duty. Then when we're sure they won't notice us leavin', we'll get just have the three of us ready, slip out unnoticed, and go," Daryl explained.

Merle nodded as though thinking this through, but was quickly distracted when he noticed they were walking past an alcohol store. "I'll be right back," Merle spoke as he ducked into the store.

"Shit." Daryl ducked in after him, likely wanting to watch his brother's back.

Glenn was going to follow the brothers inside until Levi followed them first. Glenn didn't really want to go anywhere Levi was going, so he stayed outside the store with Lawrence, who he really hadn't spoken to yet. Daryl and Merle seemed to dislike the man, but Glenn couldn't really see why on the surface.

"Brady was my cousin," Lawrence spoke up as soon as the two of them were alone.

Glenn swallowed and looked over at Lawrence, hoping the man wasn't about to deck him for getting Brady killed.

"I know he was a little rough... Hard to get along with sometimes... And I know he wasn't ever exactly kind to you in particular, but family is family." Lawrence shrugged, seemingly not as angry with Glenn as Glenn had feared he might be.

"I'm sorry he got killed," Glenn frowned. "And I mean that. It's no secret that he and I weren't best friends, and he wasn't ever nice to me... but I'm sure he had his moments, and I'm sure he meant something to you. I'm sorry his life had to end like that."

"So am I," Lawrence nodded. "It's really Levi's fault."

Glenn's ears perked up and his eyebrows rose. He didn't expect that... "You really think so?"

Lawrence nodded. "Levi's an idiot. He likes pushing people's buttons and starting shit, just like Merle. I heard about what he did last night. I don't know if I could claim to know whether he was just trying to scare you or if he really would have done something awful to you... but the fact that Merle is the one who stopped him almost makes me wonder if he and Merle aren't working together in an effort to make your life miserable. Merle likes to scare people, and so does Levi. They're really pretty similar, but also both aren't always quite what they seem."

"Really..." Glenn nodded as he thought about this. He hadn't really thought much about the possibility of Merle coming in the room last night and saving him from Levi being some sort of trick. Maybe Merle was just trying to get Glenn to trust him. Maybe Levi and Merle had been working together in some sick, convoluted plan to trick Glenn into trusting the wrong person. They really did seem similar to each other, as Lawrence had suggested. Merle threatened Glenn for fun, and Levi seemed to find joy in putting his nasty hands all over him, threatening him in a different way. They both enjoyed instilling fear in others. Glenn also now found it hard to get out of his mind the fact that Daryl was more than ready to leave Levi and Lawrence behind, while Merle seemed more hesitant to do so. Maybe Merle and Levi were better friends than they seemed to be on the surface...

"Listen, I'm only telling you this because I'm tired of the two of them always complicating my life," Lawrence spoke. "Levi purposefully groped at you this morning, just to make you upset, and then the resulting commotion ended up getting Brady killed. And of course, you'd probably be miles outside the city already if Merle hadn't completely kidnapped you off the street. Don't forget about that."

Glenn looked into the liquor store's broken windows at Merle who was eagerly looking through the bottles to find the one (or ones) he wanted.

"Does he always drink like he did yesterday?" Glenn wondered.

Lawrence nodded. "He usually drinks even more than he did yesterday. You're lucky he didn't shoot you by accident, considering the fact that he was plastered while 'jokingly' shooting at your feet."

Frowning, Glenn looked up into Lawrence's eyes. He wondered why Daryl seemed to dislike the man so much. Out of everyone in the group, Lawrence seemed the most like a normal human being. But then, Lawrence was certainly being strangely forthcoming, and he hadn't ever stood up for Glenn's sake before now. Maybe he was up to something.

"What about Daryl?" Glenn asked. While Lawrence was offering up all the dirt on these people, Glenn figured he might as well learn as much as he could, even if it might not all be entirely true. "Is he what he seems."

"Depends on how you interpret him, I guess," Lawrence shrugged. "He's a lot like his brother, really, but a little less obvious about it it. I suppose he doesn't really toy with people as much as he tries to carefully control them to his own advantage."

Glenn narrowed his eyes. Daryl didn't really seem like that to him. "And what about you?" Glenn wondered.

Lawrence smiled, "I don't know that I could fairly explain my own motives. I think I'm a nice guy... but wouldn't anyone say that about himself?"

Glenn nodded. He supposed that was true.

"Watch out for them, Glenn," Lawrence warned him as the other three men started making their way back toward the front of the store. "They aren't all on your side. In fact, I wouldn't put money on any of them truly looking out for your best interests."

Merle smirked at Glenn as the two made eye contact. The older man shook a bottle of whiskey slightly in his hand as if he were proud of himself for finding it, and then turned to begin walking back the way they'd been going before.

Daryl followed after his brother, looking slightly annoyed, and Levi followed behind him, carrying a large bottle of his own.

"I'd watch out for all of them tonight," Lawrence whispered. "Merle's no angel, and that bottle he has is pretty hard stuff. And I'd watch out for Daryl too. I'm the only one of us who doesn't drink, so I always get a first-hand view of what alcohol does to all of them. Remember, you're not the first person Merle has brought back. Merle's little friends don't fare well in this group."

"Maybe I should just go off on my own again," Glenn whispered to Lawrence. Just when he was beginning to think perhaps Merle wasn't so bad, Lawrence had planted a seed of doubt. Glenn wasn't even sure if he should trust Daryl now. Sure, Daryl had defended him a few times, but so had Merle, and he knew for a fact that Merle wasn't a reliable source of safety.

"I wouldn't do that," Lawrence advised. "You should have heard the Dixon brothers when you ran off last time. They were both pretty mad."

Glenn frowned. Now he didn't know who to trust... or if he should trust anyone at all.

xxxxxx


	9. Useless

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Chapter 9

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The five men had finally decided to stop for the night in a small library. The fact that the building had two floors and a basement with a lock-able door between the top two floors and very few windows, made it seem like the safest place around.

Glenn sat quietly in a chair in a corner as he watched Merle and Levi casually drinking at a table across the room. There were candles lit on the few tables in the tiny library and someone had been obtuse enough to put candles on some of the shelves as well, right in front of rows of books. If the whole building went up in flames, Glenn wasn't going to be surprised. He supposed that's what happened when people were stupid enough to get obliterated on whiskey in the middle of a post-apocalyptic city.

"Want a drink, Glenn?" Daryl asked as he walked past the younger man. Daryl had yet another bottle of alcohol in his hands. Glenn didn't even realize he had taken one until now. He must have stowed it in his bag before exiting the store.

Shaking his head no, Glenn glanced over toward Lawrence, who looked at him knowingly as he chewed on piece of beef jerky.

He watched silently as Daryl joined his brother and Levi at the table. The two Dixon brothers certainly seemed to have forgiven Levi fairly quickly for what he'd done to Glenn just one day ago. If they really thought Levi's actions were so awful, why were they sitting around drinking with him the next day?

Glenn frowned and made his way carefully over to Lawrence, sitting down near him and leaning over the table so he could speak to him in a quiet voice. "Why don't you drink?" Glenn wondered.

Lawrence shrugged. "Doesn't seem like a great idea considering the state of the world."

Glenn nodded. "Lawrence," he hesitated, wondering if he should even talk to this guy or if he should just go back to his corner and continue to trust none of them.

"Yeah?" Lawrence raised his eyebrows and waited for Glenn to finish his thought.

"You said before that I wasn't the first person Merle forced to join this group," Glenn noted. "What happened to the others? How many were there?"

"At least four. Four since I've been here, at least. You could even say he sort of pressured my cousin and me to stay too," Lawrence answered.

"Did he kill them?" Glenn winced.

"He didn't kill them all," Lawrence replied. "They were all killed, if that's what you're asking. Not all Merle's fault. Levi killed two of them. Beat one to death, shot one. I'm not sure what happened to the other two. Both times they were left with Daryl and Merle and when the rest of us came back, the little hostage was dead. No one ever said what happened."

Glenn felt sick. "Little? They didn't kill children, did they?"

Lawrence smiled. "Nah. I meant little like you. As in, not as muscular as the guys in our group. Everyone seems little from our perspective, I guess, or at least everyone Merle chooses to pick on. You'll notice be never targets anyone built like a football player."

Frowning, Glenn leaned back in the library chair. He wondered if it was true that Daryl and Merle had killed people. He didn't really know either of them well enough to be surprised by the possibility.

"Glenn," Lawrence leaned forward and whispered very quietly now. "I need to talk to you."

Glenn furrowed his brows. "Alright..." He waited.

"In private. I can't risk anyone else hearing what I've got to say." Lawrence stood and gestured for Glenn to follow.

Hesitating, Glenn stood and glanced over toward the other table. No one there paid any attention to what Glenn and Lawrence were up to. Why did Lawrence need to talk to him in a more secluded area? It's not like the others, in their inebriated state were going to hear anything whispered between the two sober men...

But Lawrence was already walking toward the door they'd come in, in the back of the room. Glenn needed to know what Lawrence had to say. It seemed important, whatever it was. Ignoring the voice in the back of his mind telling him not to, he followed the older man.

The five men had explored the whole building already before they set up camp there. They had to make sure no nasty surprises were in any of the rooms, so Glenn knew the building had two floors, two small study rooms branching off the second floor, and a rather large basement full of reference books, like encyclopedias.

Lawrence was heading toward the basement.

Glenn trotted up next to him. They were more than far enough away from everyone else now, to ensure no one would hear their conversation, but Lawrence kept going. "What is it, Lawrence?" Glenn finally said.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you this," Lawrence began as the two men made their way down the stairs and across the floor of the building's ground floor, "but you really need to watch out for Merle. He's killed people for far less than what you've done - running off, I mean. I'm surprised he hasn't really hurt you, or even killed you by now. In fact, he's been surprisingly gentle with you compared to how he's treated people in the past... He doesn't like his victims fighting back, but maybe he's keeping you alive for a reason... You must not have noticed how he looks at you..."

Glenn swallowed a lump in his throat. He didn't want to believe Merle was similar to Levi in that way, and logic told him the older Dixon man was in fact better than that. Merle had seemed pretty disgusted at Levi before... But how could Glenn know if that was at all genuine?

"I noticed earlier that you seemed to trust Daryl more than anyone else too," Lawrence added as he kept walking. "And I can see why. He's the one telling us all we should let you go. Do you know why I haven't suggested the same thing?"

Glenn shook his head.

"Because I'm not in charge. And neither is Daryl, and he knows it. He knows Merle's not gonna let you go. So he suggests it just to get points from you. He's working on you, Glenn," Lawrence explained as the two men walked through the basement.

Small windows near the ceiling let in the light of the moon and stars, so they could see where they were going, a little. The room was full of shelves covered in thick, heavy books.

Glenn didn't see why Lawrence needed to get so far away from the others to say this. So what if Daryl didn't really want him to be let go? That wasn't the worst sentiment someone in this group had shown. The further away from the others Glenn and Lawrence walked, the more Glenn felt like he might be making a huge mistake. Lawrence hadn't given him any obvious reason not to trust him, but Glenn would be lying if he said being led down to a dark basement, away from everyone else, was something that seemed innocent.

"Listen Glenn," Lawrence spoke as they reached the end of the hall in the basement. Lawrence put his hands on Glenn's shoulders and carefully turned him so that Glenn's back was against the wall and Lawrence was blocking his exit. Glenn held his breath for a moment as he looked up at the taller man. Lawrence had just very easily cornered him, as far away from the others as possible, and Glenn hadn't fought him at all. "Daryl might seem like he's your friend, but he does this to everyone. He gets people to trust him, only so he can hurt them more easily."

Glenn nodded slowly. At this point, he just wanted to agree with whatever Lawrence said. He still didn't know Lawrence well, or maybe at all, but he had a horrible feeling Lawrence was describing himself more than he was describing Daryl.

"Now then," Lawrence said, while Glenn could swear the older man's grip on his shoulders was slowly becoming more painful. "I don't want you telling Daryl about any of this. Or Merle."

"I won't," Glenn promised, attempting step to the side so he could get around Lawrence. The other man didn't let him through.

"Good, because I don't want any trouble from them. You don't need to be telling them anything," Lawrence continued.

"Yeah..." Glenn breathed out a nervous breath. Lawrence's advice didn't seem to be given for Glenn's sake. He wasn't worried that Daryl or Merle would hurt Glenn for bringing up anything Lawrence said. He was worried for himself. "I won't say anything," Glenn assured the taller man.

Lawrence still didn't move. Neither did Glenn. He didn't want to lash out and turn this violent, considering Lawrence hadn't actually come out and threatened him, but he certainly would have liked to get away from this man now. The longer he stood here, with Lawrence practically holding him in place, the more threatening the situation felt.

Glenn tried to look around Lawrence's body when he heard footsteps approaching. Lawrence either didn't hear them, or wasn't worried, because he didn't even turn toward the noise, not the slightest bit.

"Someone's down here," Glenn whispered, still trying to look around Lawrence's shoulder. All he could see was a dark, bulky silhouette. Glenn swallowed and wished he could back up through the wall. The shadowy figure looked an awful lot like Levi, who was literally the last person Glenn wanted to be trapped down in a dark basement with.

"Remember what you said, Glenn," Lawrence spoke, still not turning toward the sound of the footsteps. "No saying anything about this to Daryl or Merle."

Glenn looked from the shadowy figure back up to Lawrence, who now looked much more sinister than before as he grinned down at Glenn. "I won't say anything... I want to go back upstairs now," Glenn said in a small voice as he tried more obviously to shrug out of Lawrence's grip.

Lawrence shook his head, tightening his grip even more, and finally began to explain why they were really down in the basement. "Brady and I lived here with this group for a long time before you came along. And he died today, because of you."

Glenn could feel his eyes widen as he was forced to stand here and listen to Lawrence.

"You were brought here basically to be our toy. If you don't get that, you need to pay more attention. There's a reason Merle grabbed up a guy half his size, right? So you could be his defenseless little toy. And you know what toys do? They lie back and let people play with them however those people want to. You didn't get brought here so you could fight with us or be equal to the other people in this group. You're here for all of our amusement. You don't get to have an opinion or tell us we can't do whatever we want with you. If Merle wants to shoot at your feet, you let him. You seemed to get all this at first, but you're getting a little defensive lately, and your defensiveness got my cousin killed. If Levi wants to put his hands on you, you let him. You don't have the right to tell any of us no, or to get violent over it. You know you'll always lose anyway," Lawrence explained.

Glenn pulled much more obviously at his arms now, trying to free himself from Lawrence's grip, but to no avail.

"So you're going to take your punishment, right here, right now. You're going to suffer for what happened to my cousin, because it's your fault it happened. And if you say a word of it to the Dixon brothers, I'll personally make sure Levi gets a hell of a lot of alone time with you. Get it?" Lawrence growled.

A small whimper came from Glenn's throat as Lawrence pulled him away from the wall and shoved him roughly toward the approaching, shadowy figure. Of course, Levi and Lawrence had probably planned this. They were walking together nearly all day, after all.

Levi caught Glenn and wrapped his strong arm around Glenn's body, gripping one of Glenn's wrists in each of his hard, rough hands, effectively holding him in place.

"Wait!" Glenn pleaded as he tugged uselessly at his arms and stared toward Lawrence, who scowled down at him. Lawrence looked more angry than Glenn had ever seen the other man look. So far, Lawrence didn't seem to show that he felt any particular way about anything. He never seemed particularly happy, angry, or upset, no matter what was going on within the group... But he clearly felt angry now. If this man felt any care toward anyone other than himself, it was obviously for his cousin Brady, and he clearly blamed Glenn for the man's death. "I'm sorry Brady got killed. That wasn't my intention at all!" Glenn spoke up frantically in his own defense.

"Intentions don't matter much," Lawrence growled as he walked over to Levi and Glenn. Levi still held him firmly in place, which was an open invitation for Lawrence to swing a hard punch at Glenn's ribs.

Glenn tried to double over in pain when Lawrence hit him, but Levi continued to hold him upright.

Lawrence punched his ribs again, "Next time someone in this group comes up to you and starts getting a little too grabby with you, are you gonna start a fight?" The older man grabbed Glenn away from Levi and pushed him up against one of the book shelves, hard enough that several books fell off the shelf with a loud series of thudding noises, and Glenn's back ached in several places where he'd been slammed up against the hard, metal shelves.

"No," Glenn answered as he squeezed his eyes closed in reaction from the pain shooting through his body, though he wasn't sure if that was entirely true. He couldn't see himself just holding still while someone groped him, but he could easily make the promise to if it meant Lawrence would stop hurting him.

Lawrence pulled Glenn by the arm away from the shelf and threw him to the floor.

Glenn landed with a pained wince and tried to stand back up, only to find he was now being kicked by two pairs of feet. He pulled himself into a tight ball, hoping to shield his body as best as he could as the men continued to kick him.

It was unclear to Glenn how long the kicking lasted before he was being hauled back up by his arms. He didn't even know who was holding onto him now, as he had squeezed his eyes shut and chosen to focus on keeping breathing instead of anything else.

Whoever had grabbed him shoved him up against the wall and put his hand around Glenn's neck. It wasn't until the grip around his throat tightened and started to restrict his breathing that Glenn opened his eyes and started fighting back again.

With his eyes now open, he saw that it was Levi who held onto him now. Glenn gasped for air and clawed at Levi's hand. "Let me go," he gasped in a soft, strangled plea as he began to notice spots in front of his eyes.

Levi loosened his grip, but not enough for Glenn to escape. Glenn in-took pained, shaking breaths as Levi leaned sickeningly close to him, putting his fingers lightly over Glenn's lips. Glenn tried to turn his face away, but Levi would not let him.

Still gasping for breath, Glenn looked at Levi's face as the rough man looked back down at him with a hungry look in his eyes. Levi licked his own lips as he ran his fingers over Glenn's.

Glenn groaned in frustration as he tried with futility to get away from Levi, who was now moving his hand slowly and sickeningly down Glenn's chest. The large, bulky man leaned in so close that Glenn was entirely pinned in place, unable to shove Levi away as the older man moved one of his hands around to Glenn's back and the other up to the back of his head, gripping a handful of Glenn's hair tightly in his hand and pulling it back slightly so that Glenn was forced to look up at him.

With a pained hiss, Glenn squeezed his eyes shut and tried to shove Levi away. He was scared to scream just yet, as Lawrence had made it painfully obvious what Levi would be allowed to do to him if Glenn fought back or alerted Merle and Daryl of what was going on.

"Can I take off his shirt, at least?" Glenn's eyes shot back open at the sound of Levi's request. The huge, hulking man looked over toward Lawrence, for some reason asking his permission before degrading Glenn any further.

Lawrence shrugged, "Okay. Just his shirt. I don't want you doing anything too nasty. Not with me here. Wait until it's just the two of you before you take it that far."

"No!" Glenn protested, thrashing out his arms and legs in an attempt to throw Levi off him. "Get off of me! Let me go!" He reached his hands up to grip Levi's arms in an attempt to pry the larger man's fingers off him, but the other man's thick arms wouldn't budge. Glenn reached up toward Levi's face, going for his eyes just as he had tried to before. In fact, the small scratches Glenn had scarred the other man with previously were still visible. Glenn scratched at the man's face again, trying anything and everything for a chance to escape.

Levi rewarded Glenn's desperate pleas with a growl and a harsh punch across his face. Glenn's vision swam and he closed his eyes for a moment as he wondered if he was about to pass out. It didn't take long for him to regain awareness of his surroundings and to feel Levi's hard hands on him again, running down his chest and toward the bottom of his shirt.

With shaking arms, Glenn shoved at Levi and then moved his hands down to try to keep his own t-shirt in place as Levi effortlessly pulled it up over his head and tossed it to the floor. A frightened whimper echoed through the dark basement as Levi moved his hands over Glenn's exposed skin. The larger man then leaned in very close to Glenn and almost seemed like he was going to try to kiss him on the mouth.

"Help me!" Glenn screamed as his struggles continued to prove futile. He didn't care that Lawrence and Levi had threatened him. What worse things would they do to him as a result of him screaming? They were already hurting him anyway. Why shouldn't he scream for help from the other two men upstairs?

Lawrence roughly pulled Glenn away from Levi and slammed his fist hard against the boy's stomach. This time, Glenn was allowed to fall down to the floor as he coughed and wrapped his arms around his aching ribs.

It only took a few seconds for Lawrence to grab Glenn by his arms and drag him back up off the floor.

Glenn winced and threw a punch in Lawrence's direction as the man pulled him up by one arm. "Stop!" Glenn begged as he shoved his hands uselessly against Lawrence, who pushed him back so that his body hit another one of the book shelves, scattering even more heavy books over the floor. Glenn kicked out as hard as he could, making contact with Lawrence's legs, and apparently hard enough to upset the man. The next thing he felt was a very hard hand slamming quite heavily down against his temple.

For a second his vision swam, his body began feeling numb, and the world around him was cloaked in a hazy, smoke-like screen as Glenn's vision clouded over. He felt like he could easily give in and pass out now. He was certainly close to losing consciousness at this point. Glenn felt his legs wobble below him as he let his head fall slightly forward, giving in to his body's exhaustion. He wondered if maybe he shouldn't even try to stay conscious anymore. At least if he was passed out on the floor, he wouldn't feel any more pain. Why fight to stay alert when he was powerless to stop Levi and Lawrence from hurting him?

Glenn breathed in slow, steady breaths as he stood there, seeing Lawrence standing very close to him, saying something that Glenn couldn't quite make out. Behind him, Glenn saw the other man, Levi, just standing there watching the other two men fight, but he was even more hazy in Glenn's vision than Lawrence was. Glenn looked back toward Lawrence as everything around him continued looking as though a dark fog was settling down in the room. His ears rang very slightly and his body felt like it was going limp. Lawrence's mouth was still moving. He looked like he was yelling now.

Glenn closed his eyes and was just about ready to let his body give up when something dragged him back to the present.

"Hey!" Glenn's attention was drawn back as he heard Lawrence's angry voice shouting at him and felt the man shaking him violently. "I'm not finished with you," he growled.

Glenn forced his eyes to open and noticed that, unfortunately, the haze which had clouded his vision was slowly lifting. Any numbness he had felt was vanishing as well as he became fully alert once more. Glenn's entire body ached as Lawrence shook him. He tried to shrug out of the other man's grip, but his efforts were useless.

With a laugh, Lawrence smirked down at him. "Glad you chose to come back around," the taller man said in a sarcastic voice. With that, he shoved Glenn, hard, in Levi's direction.

Levi caught him with rough hands as Glenn fought to get away from him. "Don't you go passing out on us, little kid." Levi grinned as he moved one hand up to run it through Glenn's hair.

Glenn shrunk down and moved his fingers up to Levi's hands, trying to pry them off of himself. He was almost relieved when Levi shoved him roughly back toward Lawrence, almost like the two men were playing a cruel, rough game of keep away.

Lawrence promptly shoved him back toward Levi, who pushed him even harder toward the floor. Glenn landed with a pained, breathless groan as he tried to pull himself back up to his feet.

But Levi was back on him in seconds flat, climbing on top of Glenn instead of pulling him up off the floor. The large man moved his hands over Glenn's exposed skin once more and then moved down to his jeans again, leaving them buttoned this time, and electing to push his fingers down under the fabric instead. Lawrence had probably told him to leave the boy's pants in place, and this was Levi's way of getting around that rule.

Glenn pounded his fists uselessly against Levi's chest as he tried to throw the larger man's heavy body off him. He felt tears welling up in his eyes. He couldn't move. Levi was too strong. Glenn whimpered in fear and pain as he continued to shove his tired arms against his aggressor. It was almost like struggling to move a wall just by shoving against it. It just couldn't be done. Glenn breathed in a much needed gulp of oxygen and began screaming again. "Help me! Daryl! Merle! Help me! Help mmph-" Levi crushed one of his large hands over Glenn's face and pushed his other hand further down the front of Glenn's jeans.

"Merle's not gonna help you, little kid. No one is," Levi teased as he pressed his hand hard over Glenn's mouth and continued his relentless assault. "He only got mad last time because he didn't get a go at you first. He didn't force you to come back with him for no reason. Think about it, little kid. He brought you back, and for what? What has Merle really even done to you yet? Just wait and see. He's worse than I am."

Grabbing at Levi's muscular arms with his hands, Glenn whimpered and tried to keep his tears from falling as the pain at the back of his head grew from Levi crushing his hand hard over Glenn's face and pressing him further against the floor. Luckily, Levi was having trouble getting his hand under Glenn's boxers, but that didn't change the fact that the guy was indeed forcing his giant, rough, calloused hand between Glenn's jeans and shorts. The fabric of the boxer shorts was thin and Glenn could feel the man's rough skin against his own as Levi struggled to shove his nasty paw further under Glenn's clothing.

Lawrence laughed. "Come on, Levi; I said nothing gross," the other man repeated his earlier instructions, but didn't seem to be too offended that Levi had disregarded his orders.

Glenn felt tears flowing from his eyes and catching on Levi's fingers which were still crushed painfully over his lower-face, almost smothering him at this point. He couldn't move, and could barely breathe. He was so scared.

"Come on, Lawrence-" Levi almost sounded like he was panting. "Just leave me alone with him for like five minutes."

Through his tears, Glenn could see Lawrence shaking his head. "You'd kill him, Levi. You don't want the Dixons to know about this then you probably shouldn't do that just yet. He'll die of internal bleeding... This kid's the size of a teenaged girl."

Glenn didn't bother being offended by that exaggeration. Not when Lawrence was, in a strange way, defending him and saving him from a horrific, painful fate.

Levi seemed disappointed, but gave in. "Guess we gotta leave something to threaten him with," Levi agreed. He looked back down at Glenn, "It's gonna happen though, sooner or later. And if it isn't me, it'll be Merle. Don't count your blessings just yet, little kid."

Fortunately, Levi finally stopped groping him and stood up, leaving Glenn lying on the ground.

With pain in all his limbs and through his whole body, Glenn shakily pulled himself up enough to crawl back into a corner. He winced and squeezed his eyes shut as Levi squatted down, hovering over him and putting his hands on Glenn's shoulder and chest.

Levi whispered, "Consider that a little preview of what's to come if you don't keep your mouth shut."

Glenn shrunk down away from him and inadvertently let out a choked sob.

"Next time you and me are alone, I can be gentle, or I can be rough... and what you just experienced was me being gentle," Levi spoke in a low, threatening voice, leaning closer and running his hand through Glenn's hair. "You gonna tell Merle or Daryl about this?" he asked, moving his hand down to Glenn's cheek and forcing his victim to look up at him.

Glenn shook his head as he sniffed back tears. "No," he promised, in a soft, breathless voice. He felt so humiliated, weak, and degraded. Even though Levi could have easily done much worse to him, Glenn still felt ashamed and embarrassed. The only reason this had happened was because Glenn had put trust into Lawrence, which was clearly a foolish thing to do... He knew better than to let Lawrence corner him in the basement, away from everyone else. He knew all along that the situation felt wrong, but he'd gone against his instincts anyway... He'd been so desperate to cling onto someone in this group - to find one person who was truly worthy of his trust. But he'd clearly chosen the wrong person, and had suffered greatly for his error. He felt so small, defenseless, and defeated, completely useless to himself. Even when he tried to fight back, it had been useless. He was at the mercy of these men, and could do just about nothing to make things better for himself. Merle and Daryl were still wild cards. Glenn could tell them what happened and hope that they'd give a damn, but even if they did, it would only lead to more anger in Lawrence and Levi. Their threats were very clear and Glenn didn't want to risk doing anything that would make those threats into a reality.

"Next time we're out and about and I put my arm around you, are you gonna fight me about it?" Levi asked, moving his hands slowly over Glenn's skin and leaning even closer to him.

"No," Glenn's voice shook as he fought the urge to shove Levi's hands away. Even though he wanted nothing more than to push the larger man off him, the assault seemed to be mostly over, and Glenn feared fighting back now might only end up getting him hurt more.

"Alright." Lawrence smiled and offered his hand down to Levi, helping him stand back up. He looked down at Glenn, who had tears running down his face as he cowered in the corner. "Compose yourself, Glenn, and then get back up to the second floor. And remember not to try to escape. We're watching you closer than you may realize."

With that, Lawrence and Levi walked away.

Glenn held his breath until he heard the door to the basement open and then close, followed by the very faint sound of footsteps making their way back upstairs.

Pulling his knees up against his chest, Glenn inhaled a shaky breath. He wondered how long he could stay down here before Lawrence or Levi would come back for him. As much as he wanted to stay hidden down here forever, and to never face any of these men ever again, he knew he couldn't. If he stayed gone for too long, people would start searching for him, and they'd find him. And if it were Merle or Daryl who found him, they'd see how upset and hurt he looked, and they'd put two and two together, and then they'd be upset with Levi and Lawrence, and then Lawrence and Levi would be upset with Glenn, and Glenn didn't even want to think about what those two would do to him in that event.

He had to keep this interaction a secret, just as he'd promised Levi and Lawrence he would. Merle's group already seemed very split, and Glenn stirring up more hatred within the group would only get people killed, maybe even himself. It would do no good to raise tensions even higher. And of course, Lawrence's promise to allow Levi plenty of 'alone time' with Glenn was terrifying.

Glenn inhaled carefully. His whole body ached so much that he wanted to just lie down on the floor and sleep for the rest of the week. But he couldn't. He had to go back upstairs, and he had to pretend nothing had happened. If Daryl or Merle caught on that the other two men had hurt him, Glenn was surely going to be in trouble.

But of course, if he made his way up to the ground floor and found no one was there to stop him, Glenn was honestly probably going to run for it. It didn't matter that it was night time, that he'd be slowed down by his aching body, or that he had no weapon. Willingly going back upstairs to the rest of the group when no one was forcing him to would be foolish on his part.

With shaking arms and legs, he dragged himself up off the floor, tugging his shirt back on and slowly making his way toward the stairs. At least Lawrence hadn't let Levi take things too far this time... but Glenn had a feeling Levi wasn't just going to leave him alone after this.

xxxxxx


	10. Cognizance

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Chapter 10

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Merle stumbled up the library's front steps as he made his way back inside. He'd just gone out to take a piss and had passed Levi and Lawrence coming up while Merle was on his way down the stairs. He wondered why Levi and Lawrence were so weird like that... Did they really just go outside to piss, together? Merle even made a snide comment about it, but they'd just shrugged it off and continued upstairs.

They were lucky there weren't many walkers out here. It was nice to be able to use the outdoors as a bathroom so they didn't have to use the actual bathrooms inside, which very often no longer had running water.

Merle swung open the front door, locking it behind him when he made his way back inside.

As he made his way toward the stairs leading to the second floor, he noticed someone coming up the stairs from the basement. It was dark inside the library, but he could see well enough to notice the figure walking slowly up the steps was smaller than Daryl or the others. It must have been the group's semi-captive member, Glenn.

"Hey, boy," Merle called out as he stumbled forward toward the kid. He noticed Glenn didn't quite look happy to see him, but that was nothing new.

Glenn stopped in his tracks as Merle continued walking toward him. The boy looked like he'd just been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. He looked past Merle's shoulder toward the library's front door for a brief second, but didn't make a move to run for it. Instead, he just stood still, waiting for Merle to approach him.

"I know I said before, Glenn," Merle slurred as he walked up to Glenn, putting his arm around the boy's shoulders and noticing Glenn intaking a sharp breath and stiffening under his touch. "But I'm sorry, like really honestly sorry for actin' like I was gonna throw you off the roof. I mean, I'm not sorry. It was kinda funny, but I guess it was kinda mean too, you know?" Merle laughed his usual raspy laugh and pulled Glenn closer to his body with his arm.

Glenn almost felt like he was shaking, but maybe it was Merle who was shaking from a mixture of withdrawal and being quite drunk.

"Hey, I said I was sorry," Merle repeated, dragging Glenn along with him as the boy seemed to have nothing to say on the matter. "You ain't got no right to be mad at me."

"It's okay, Merle," Glenn said in a small voice as he allowed Merle to lead him back up the stairs.

"What was you doin' down in the basement?" Merle wondered, stopping walking and therefore forcing Glenn to stop as well. Glenn had certainly looked guilty a few moments ago when Merle had first spotted him. "Why you sneakin' around for?" Merle added with narrowed eyes.

Glenn frowned as he looked up at Merle. The kid hesitated as though fearful he was going to be in some sort of trouble. He looked like he was about to cry. Hell, he may have already started to.

"Aww..." Merle made a pouting expression with his lips, both mocking Glenn as well as feeling a slight twinge of sympathy for him in the same moment. "I ain't mad. You didn't leave the building. As long as you don't leave, you're free to look around a little. Probably just wanted to go down there an' study. You know you don't need to anymore, right? The world's over. Y'all Asians don't need to worry so much about medical school these days." He laughed another raspy chuckle.

Glenn looked down at the floor, but didn't say anything.

"Hey, you don't gotta be so melancholy, boy." Merle frowned. "Yer actin' like I just kicked the shit out of you. I been bein' really nice to you over the past day, you know?"

He could feel Glenn's shoulders shrinking down under his arm. Why was the kid acting so scared of him tonight? Merle really had been being exceptionally friendly over the past day. He'd been so friendly it even made himself feel sick. Ever since he'd walked in on Levi actually legitimately trying to rape this kid, he'd honestly felt pretty bad for bringing him here and felt even more guilty for noticing Levi following Brady and Glenn up the stairs yesterday and not going up to check on them sooner. In fact, he hadn't even thought to check what was going on up there until Brady came back down for tape. As soon as Merle realized Levi and Glenn were up in the room alone and completely un-supervised, he decided he should probably make sure Levi wasn't doing something awful. And of course, the guy had been.

Glenn still didn't say anything in response. He simply stood still, seeming to try to distance himself from Merle's touch without actually moving away from him.

"I didn't do nothin' too bad to you, Glenn," Merle was beginning to feel annoyed. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was the drug withdrawal, or maybe both, but Glenn was really getting on his nerves right now. Merle dragged Glenn toward the wall and pushed the boy's back up against it so he could look down at Glenn's face while also cornering him so he couldn't run off.

He observed Glenn's wide, fearful eyes as the kid stood there, trembling slightly and staring up at Merle as though he was completely on edge, waiting for Merle to lash out in some way.

"What's wrong with you?" Merle growled.

Glenn shook his head, seeming to search for his words as he stared up at Merle. "I- I'm just tired. I just want to go to sleep. It's been a long day..."

Merle scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You're such a fuckin' liar. Did someone do something to you?" Merle glanced up the stairs toward the second floor. "Did Levi and Lawrence do something? I saw them going back upstairs while I was coming down..."

Glenn's lower lip quivered during a long, awkward pause. "No," he finally said, taking the liberty to turn away from Merle and start heading back up the stairs on his own.

"Not so fast, kid," Merle objected, grabbing Glenn by the back of his shirt and pulling him back. Putting his hand over Glenn's chest, he shoved the boy back against the wall. He needed answers.

Glenn winced, a lot louder than the small gesture from Merle warranted.

The older man frowned down at the boy who actually looked like he was in a fair amount of pain. Merle's eyes moved to his own hand which was holding Glenn in place over his lower chest and ribs. With a quick, darting hand, Merle pulled Glenn's t-shirt upward to reveal several darkening bruises.

With a fearful-sounding gasp, Glenn tugged his shirt back down.

Merle narrowed his eyes. "What did they do?" he wondered as he looked Glenn over. Suddenly Glenn looked very small to Merle, and very vulnerable. It occurred to Merle now that he had not paid any attention to what Glenn was doing all night. He hadn't paid any attention to what anyone else was doing really, not for a while now. He'd begun the night drinking with Levi and Daryl, and then just Daryl. How long had Levi been absent?

Shaking his head slightly, Glenn said nothing.

"What did they do, Glenn?" Merle growled, quickly growing frustrated. "Even Chinese guys aren't that color without someone knocking 'em around. Did Lawrence and Levi do this?" He gestured toward the boy's ribs. "And they threaten you after? Tell you to keep quiet about it?"

Glenn shook his head. "Those are from before," he lied. "Levi and Lawrence didn't do anything."

"Yes they did," Merle disagreed. "I can tell they did somethin' to you." He looked Glenn over again with a scrutinizing eye, taking in as many details as he could in his half-drunken state. Glenn's body was trembling and he had bruises on his arms and face in addition to the ones covering his torso. And Merle was pretty sure he didn't have that many bruises before. Glenn was acting awfully traumatized, and his refusal to tell Merle what had happened was certainly troubling. What if Levi had gotten him alone and finished what he'd started yesterday? "Tell me what he did to you, Glenn. I'll kill him if he did that again. If he did what he was doin' yesterday..." Merle could feel rage boiling up inside him. "I swear I'll kick the shit out of him. I'll throw 'im out to the walkers. I don't care. I'll do it. I don't put up with shit like that. That's sick. Tell me what he did."

Glenn in-took a shaking breath, but still offered no information as he looked down at the floor. "No one did anything. Just leave it alone. Nothing happened. I was downstairs by myself."

It was an obvious lie.

"I'll ask them then." Merle grabbed Glenn hard by his arm and tugged him along.

"Merle, don't!" Glenn actually sounded fearful.

"Why not?" Merle glanced over his shoulder at Glenn who he was still pulling along with him. "They didn't do nothin', they'll tell me so an' we'll move on. Yer acting like somebody did somethin' to you, an' I'm gonna find out who did what. If you won't tell me, they will."

Merle could feel Glenn trying to pull his arm free from the older man's grasp, but that only caused Merle to squeeze the boy's arm more tightly.

"Please don't ask them..." Glenn's voice shook.

Merle turned toward Glenn. "Why?" he asked again. "They threaten you?"

"What does it matter, Merle?" Glenn frowned. "You've threatened me too. Just leave it alone."

Merle shook his head and dragged Glenn up the stairs. When he threatened Glenn, he didn't usually mean it. He doubted Levi and Lawrence were just joking with the kid, and judging by the way Glenn was acting now, they'd done more than just threaten him. Glenn wouldn't look so scared if Lawrence and Levi simply told him to be good or else. Merle would also be willing to bet money that their threats were a lot more frightening than his.

When they reached the second floor again, Merle dragged Glenn through the door and made his way over to the table where Daryl, Levi, and Lawrence were drinking.

"You guys got somethin' you wanna tell me?" Merle glared from Levi to Lawrence.

Glenn was still trying to pull his arm free from Merle's grip as Levi offered the kid an angry stare.

"About what, Merle?" Lawrence wondered with a calm tone in his voice.

Daryl looked confused as he observed the situation, looking from one man to the next as his older brother continued questioning them.

"What'd you guys do to him?" Merle nodded slightly back toward Glenn, who was still trying to wriggle out of Merle's firm grip around the boy's slender arm.

Lawrence shook his head as though completely clueless. "Did he say I did something to him?" Lawrence wondered.

Merle narrowed his eyes. He looked over to Levi, who just shrugged.

"If either of you does anything to this kid, I will kill you myself," Merle promised, dragging Glenn along with him into one of the small study rooms off to the side of the main room. Daryl followed him and the three of them stood still and silent for a moment inside the room.

"Merle, what's goin' on?" Daryl wondered as Merle finally let go of Glenn and the kid backed himself up into a corner.

Letting out a long, annoyed sigh, Merle turned toward his brother. "Those guys did somethin' to him. When I was goin' downstairs, I met Levi and Lawrence comin' back up, and then I went outside, came back in, an' found Glenn walking up from the basement. He was actin' all weird, an' won't tell me what they did."

Daryl turned toward Glenn,who shook his head very slightly. "They didn't do anything," Glenn promised. "Merle's really drunk," he added, likely to explain away any suspicion the older Dixon brother had.

Merle felt an actual growl in his throat as he took a few large steps and made his way across the small room, cornering Glenn once more as the boy shrunk down in his shadow. Glenn's dark eyes were huge as he looked like he was bracing himself for something, likely expecting Merle to lash out and hit him. Of course he wasn't going to hit Glenn. That didn't mean he wasn't frustrated with the kid for refusing to tell the truth though.

"Merle." Daryl grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him back. "Let's just ditch them tomorrow night. We won't need to worry about anything they've done or will do if they aren't with us anymore," Daryl suggested.

Merle inhaled and exhaled loud, angry breaths. He was drunk. That much was true. But he wasn't so drunk that he was oblivious. Merle wasn't exactly the nicest guy in the world. If he were, he wouldn't have kidnapped Glenn off the street in the first place. But he wasn't pure evil like the other two guys were. He had a heart, no matter how small it was. When he brought people back to amuse him, he never gave the other guys permission to do whatever they wanted with Merle's hostages. He didn't mind them playing around in a similar way as Merle, but these guys, especially Levi, always took their games a step or two too far, and Merle was sick of it.

xxxxxx


	11. Uncertain

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Chapter 11

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While Daryl had gone to retrieve a light source, Glenn was left alone with Merle, who was honestly kind of scaring him at this point. Though it was clear to Glenn that Levi and Lawrence were not to be trusted in general, he couldn't get the things they'd said about Merle out of his mind.

They had said and/or implied that Merle only got angry with Levi's inappropriate behaviors because Merle was upset he wasn't the one in Levi's place. Glenn didn't know Merle well enough to make a good guess on whether or not that was true. Merle had kidnapped him. That was a fact, and like the others had mentioned, Merle did that for a reason. He was refusing to let Glenn go still, but for what purpose? Maybe Merle really was just as bad as Levi, only he hadn't shown Glenn that side of himself yet.

Glenn kept himself backed into the room's corner as he stared at Merle, who stood between him and the door. Ordinarily, Glenn may have tried to take advantage of Merle's drunken state and use this opportunity to try to get to the door and make his escape. But knowing Levi and Lawrence were right outside, Glenn stayed put.

"I told them to leave you alone," Merle growled as he shook his head. He seemed very upset, and Glenn's run-in with the older Dixon brother hadn't exactly been comforting. Merle had been rather rough and accusatory, and Glenn wasn't sure what to make of it.

"They didn't do anything," Glenn persisted in a voice which was unfortunately not very confident.

"Don't you fuckin' lie to me." Merle glared at him.

Glenn shrunk down slightly and decided against saying anything more. He wasn't sure if what Merle said had been intended to be heard as a threat, but it certainly sounded somewhat threatening. What was he supposed to do? Levi and Lawrence would hurt him if he told Merle what happened, and Merle might hurt him if he didn't...

At this point, Daryl made his way back into the room. Glenn actually found that he felt relieved by that fact. Even though he still wasn't entirely sure if he could trust Daryl, the younger Dixon brother seemed like the safest of the group. He was the only one who hadn't really threatened or hurt Glenn in any way. Of course, Lawrence had seemed pretty sane too, up until recently...

Glenn swallowed a lump in his throat and stood still and silently as he watched Daryl place several candles on the table in the small study-room the three men occupied. Glenn watched as the other man lit each one of the candles and as the various silhouettes and shadows in the room became more clear images.

Without a word, Daryl handed Glenn a bottle of water, which the younger man gladly accepted and took a long drink of. Daryl seemed to be the only one in this group who acknowledged that Glenn required basic necessities like food and water. Besides for when Glenn had access to his own bag and the food and water in it, he had relied on Daryl pretty heavily for such things. So far, no one but Daryl had thought to offer him anything at all.

"You alright, Glenn?" Daryl asked simply, not requiring specific information like his brother, but still seeming to care enough to ask. Glenn did notice, however, that Daryl's eyes scanned up and down the other man's arms and over his face, taking in Glenn's appearance, and likely allowing him to draw his own conclusions as to how exactly Glenn had become more scuffed up and bruised since the last time Daryl saw him.

"I'm fine," Glenn said, and he really was, more or less. As long as none of these guys attacked him again, he really would be fine. He just had to get away from all of them, forever... and then he'd be fine.

"You're not fuckin' fine," Merle took a few steps forward.

Glenn flinched as he nervously set the bottle of water down so he could be prepared to use his hands in his own defense if he had to. Merle seemed very upset, and Glenn wasn't sure what the older man might do in his state of anger.

"You think he's fine, Daryl?" Merle asked his younger brother. "You think they didn't do nothin' to him?"

Daryl looked uncertain as he shrugged slightly. "I don't know, Merle. You can't force him to tell you if they did."

"He don't got to tell me," Merle growled. "I ain't stupid. I can fuckin' see." With that, he moved quickly toward Glenn and tugged the boy's t-shirt up a bit to reveal his stomach, just as before. "What's all this, if they didn't do nothin' to him?" Merle shouted at Daryl.

Daryl's eyes rested on Glenn's exposed stomach, which was covered in bruises that hadn't been there before. Glenn knew Daryl was perfectly aware that the bruises were fresh, because the younger Dixon brother had seen Glenn's stomach that morning when he'd checked the boy for bites. The bruises weren't there then.

Glenn was still unsure of exactly how much he was expected to put up with from Merle before telling the older man to back off. Though there was a good chance Merle was included in the list of people Lawrence claimed Glenn no longer had the right to say 'no' to, Glenn didn't appreciate Merle grabbing at him and pulling at his shirt. Even if Merle was only trying to show Daryl bruises on Glenn's body, it was not his place to do so, and Glenn didn't appreciate it.

Tugging his shirt back down, Glenn shoved his hands against Merle's chest, seemingly actually catching the other man off guard. "Don't touch me," Glenn ordered, trying to sound confident through his fear.

Merle stumbled backward, but Glenn had nowhere to run. Instead, he stood still and stared nervously back at Merle, hoping the other man wouldn't physically attack him.

For a moment, anger flashed through Merle's eyes, but the anger quickly turned to something else and for a few long seconds, Glenn and Merle simply stared at each other. Though he was clearly still affected by the alcohol he had consumed, the older man looked to be deep in thought as he stared Glenn down with questioning, contemplative eyes. But Merle was quick to let any emotions other than frustration and anger leave him."Oh, you're awfully defensive now," Merle grumbled, staring at Glenn as though considering whether or not to punch the younger man. "You let Levi do whatever he wants to you, but I try to fuckin' help you..."

"I didn't let Levi do anything." Glenn felt rage inside him as his hands clenched into fists. For Merle to imply that the pain Merle's friends inflicted upon him was somehow Glenn's own fault was pretty harsh.

The real truth wasn't that Glenn was quicker to fight back against Merle, but that Merle was the one who let Glenn fight back. When Glenn shoved Levi away, the man came back, hit Glenn, held him in place, and didn't let him defend himself. Merle alone was the reason Glenn fighting back against the other man did a damn thing for Glenn's sake. If Merle wanted to control Glenn the way Levi did, the other man certainly could.

"So I ask you one single god-damned question. I try to help you, to keep these fuckers from getting to you, an' you won't let me?" Merle took a step toward Glenn. "I ain't done nothin' to you. I never hurt you... but you're awful quick to fight me on damn near everything. You keepin' secrets for Levi now? A man who fuckin' tried to..." Merle shook his head as he tried to find the right words. "This guy fuckin' held you down, was tearin' your god-damn clothes off you, and even when I came in the room he kept goin'. If I didn't make him stop, he wouldn't have... And you're keepin' his secrets? Are you fuckin' kidding me?"

Glenn could tell that the alcohol hadn't worn out of Merle's system yet. The man was finding a hard time articulating what he meant to say, but Glenn got the gist of it. Merle felt like Glenn was defending Levi and refusing the older Dixon's help. But Merle didn't understand. Levi and Lawrence might actually kill Glenn if he didn't keep his mouth shut. The reason Glenn was keeping secrets for them was because having Merle angry with him seemed safer than having Levi and Lawrence angry with him.

"I'm not keeping secrets. I just want away from this group. All of you," Glenn growled as he stared back at Merle.

"What, so Levi and Lawrence can go after you on their own? Find you without me and Daryl there to keep them from doin' whatever they want to you?" Merle threatened as he took a half step forward and looked like he was ready to reach out and shake Glenn out of anger and frustration.

"You haven't exactly kept them away from me so far," Glenn frowned, hoping he was right about Merle and that arguing with the man wasn't going to end with Merle attacking him in a fit of rage. "Stop pretending you're keeping me around for my own good."

"You'd be fuckin' dead right now if we let you go. An' if you don't want Levi an' Lawrence around, just say the word. Tell me what they did." Merle scowled toward Glenn as he continued. "I'll go take care of 'em right now. If they did anything more than give you a little pat on the shoulder, it's more than I gave them permission to."

Glenn frowned. He didn't want Merle to kill the other men for their crimes against him. He only wanted to get out of here. No one needed to die. They just needed to leave him alone.

"Tell me, Glenn." Merle's voice was increasing in volume as he seemed to be getting angrier by the second. "You want me to go take care of it? These guys are just as easy to kill as the walkers are. I'll just shoot 'em both. You won't tell me what they did; I'll just assume the worst. If Levi can't keep his fuckin' hands to himself, maybe I oughtta just cut 'em off. An' Lawrence can't keep his manipulative little thoughts in his god-damned head? I'll blow his head in half with a fuckin' bullet. Then you can go. They can't go after you if they're dead."

"Calm down, Merle," Daryl spoke up, putting his hand lightly on his brother's chest, almost as though holding him back from Glenn. With each additional angry word that had come from Merle's mouth, he had inched closer and closer toward the younger man. It was fortunate for everyone's sake that Daryl had stepped in, because Glenn had been very close to reaching out and shoving Merle away again, which probably would have only pissed the older man off. "Whether they did something or not, we're not gonna let them again," Daryl added as he looked carefully into his brother's eyes.

Daryl looked toward Glenn. "You can tell us what happened, Glenn. You don't have to, but you can. We won't let them near you again either way."

Glenn shook his head and refused to answer. Everyone in this group was already upset with each other. Tensions were high, and if Glenn wasn't careful, someone was going to end up dead. He'd already gotten Brady killed. Whether it was fully Glenn's fault or not, and whether Brady had been a generally good man or bad, Glenn speaking up had cost Brady his life. For everyone's sake, especially his own, Glenn needed to just keep quiet until he could get himself away from this dysfunctional group.

"We're away from those two for now," Daryl continued his effort to ease Merle's mind. "They ain't gonna do nothin' else tonight, so let's just take a damn minute. We can talk this out, but not with everyone pissed off. We ain't gettin' nowhere like that."

Merle still looked angry, but surprisingly seemed to begin to calm down at his brother's request. He took a step back and sighed loudly. "I'd just like to know what they did," he said in a more even tone as he looked back toward Glenn. "Just 'cause the world's ended don't mean it's god-damned anarchy around here. Those two ain't allowed to just do whatever they damn-well please. An' if they did somethin' to you, they don't got to get away with it."

Glenn exhaled a slow, even breath. If Merle and Daryl really had killed people, like Lawrence had implied, the older Dixon's words didn't mean much. But Glenn didn't know if that was true, and even if it weren't, Merle wasn't the law around here. Just because he disagreed with Lawrence and Levi didn't mean he was going to be able to fix this. All of the men were armed. If Merle tried to punish the other two somehow, they weren't just going to let him.

"Let's all just sit down for a minute," Daryl suggested. He glanced toward Merle and added, "Sober up a bit. Calm down... And we can talk about this like adults and figure out what to do."

Merle shook his head and sighed. He seemed calmer now, but still didn't seem to want to listen to his brother fully. "I gotta get some fuckin' air," he spoke as he turned toward the door.

"Don't start shit with them," Daryl warned as his brother made his way back out into the main room of the library's second floor. "That ain't gonna solve anything."

"Don't worry about it, Little Brother." Merle almost looked like he was smirking toward Daryl, which Glenn did not necessarily interpret as being a good sign. "Just gonna get some air," Merle insisted.

Daryl shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Can't ever tell him what to do."

Glenn forced a nervous laugh. He hoped Merle wasn't going to do anything crazy...

... ... ...

Daryl frowned as he looked across the room at Glenn, who still looked very nervous, even with only Daryl in the room with him. He hoped Glenn didn't think that Daryl was capable of anything anywhere near as cruel as the things Levi or Lawrence were, but he couldn't exactly present a convincing argument to the contrary, other than the fact that he hadn't done anything awful in the two days Glenn had been here with them. That wasn't exactly definitive proof that Daryl was a safe person for Glenn to be around.

Though he would have liked to ask Glenn what exactly had happened to create the numerous bruises all over his body, he didn't want to press the issue as Merle had. At this point, it seemed Glenn was not wanting to talk, and Daryl was just going to have to accept that. For now at least.

"Listen, Glenn," Daryl spoke up, trying to keep his voice calm and his tone even. He didn't want to seem threatening, but he did want to be taken seriously. "I know you don't want to talk about whatever they did to you," Daryl continued. "And that's fine. You don't got to. Understand that I ain't askin' you what they did, or who did what." Daryl took a step forward toward Glenn, who remained still, but also seemed quite attentive, as though just waiting for Daryl to lunge toward him.

"They didn't do anything," Glenn interrupted in a small voice.

Daryl almost rolled his eyes but resisted the urge. Glenn didn't need to try to deny any of it. It was painfully obvious someone had hurt him, and Levi and Lawrence were the only ones who could have done it. "I ain't arguing with you over that," Daryl reminded him again. "Let's just say no one did nothin' to you. Alright?"

Glenn nodded slowly, but seemed confused and uncertain.

Daryl took another step forward so he was only a foot or so from Glenn as he let his eyes scan the bruises on Glenn's arms and face. Both of Glenn's arms had finger-shaped bruises up and down them - and quite a few too. Many more than there had been this morning. It was clear someone had grabbed him very hard. Probably two someones. Daryl frowned as he pictured in his mind Levi or Lawrence's rough hands grabbing at Glenn, holding him down and hurting him while he couldn't even fight back. It wouldn't have been a fair fight at all. He was sure Glenn was a very capable guy and all - he was obviously a fast runner, knew how to survive on his own - as he'd been alone when Merle found him... But he was relatively small, and wasn't the most muscular of people. When up against someone like Levi or Lawrence, or especially when up against both of them together, he didn't stand a chance.

Glenn must have noticed Daryl's eyes focused intently on his bruises. He wrapped his arms around his middle, putting one over the other in an attempt to hide his bruises from the other man's gaze.

With a small sigh, Daryl looked up toward Glenn's eyes, noticing a darkening bruise on his cheek and a smaller one on the side of his jaw. "Like I said... Let's say no one hurt you. You are hurt though, so let's address that. We don't gotta blame no one or anything. Just acknowledge the injuries."

Glenn didn't reply.

"You think anything's broken?" Daryl wondered, narrowing his eyes when he swore he saw marks on Glenn's neck as well. He wasn't sure if what he was seeing were bruises or shadows. He reached slowly and carefully toward Glenn's face, putting his fingers gently under the kid's jaw and tilting his head up very slightly so Daryl could see his neck.

The young man seemed slightly nervous by Daryl's gesture, but not enough to shove him backward like he had with Merle. Daryl wouldn't have been surprised if Glenn trusted Daryl more than Merle. But he also wouldn't have been surprised if Glenn was holding still out of fear. "I don't think anything's broken," Glenn finally answered in a voice that almost sounded out of breath.

Daryl frowned when he could better see Glenn's throat. Sure enough, a few bruises did cover the skin there, in a pattern resembling fingers. Someone had wrapped their hand around Glenn's throat at some point, which kind of made Daryl want to go out into the other room and do the same thing to Levi and Lawrence. But the younger Dixon brother had better control over his anger than Merle did. He in took a steady breath and looked back up into Glenn's wide, dark eyes. "You sure?" he asked.

Glenn nodded. "Could I please leave tomorrow? You told me you'd help me when the time is right."

Daryl was honestly a bit surprised by that request. "That's not what I meant." Daryl frowned. "The time bein' right means when no one's gonna be watching. The idea is to help you sneak off, unnoticed. People's gonna be payin' attention."

Glenn pulled back away from Daryl's hand which had still been on his chin up until that point. He made his way over to the wall and slid down with his back against it.

"You don't gotta pout like a little kid, Glenn." Daryl frowned down at him.

Shaking his head as though annoyed, Glenn simply stared across the room, ignoring Daryl.

"Whatever," Daryl scoffed as he made his way to the adjacent wall and slid down it in a similar manner. He did want to help Glenn get away from the others. He certainly wanted the kid to be safe and he never wanted Levi or Lawrence to get near the young man again. But he couldn't just send the boy off with the rest of the group right there. It just wouldn't have worked.

Both men looked toward the door as Merle opened it and made his way back inside. He seemed to be in a slightly better mood than he was in when he left. "Got us some blankets." Merle smirked. "If we're gonna be spendin' the night in here, might as well be comfortable." He tossed one to Daryl and one to Glenn.

"You didn't do nothin' to them, did you?" Daryl wondered, leaning to the side so he could see out the door and into the other room where Levi and Lawrence were.

"Nah," Merle promised. "Didn't even talk to 'em."

"You guys alright out there?" Daryl called, wanting to make sure everyone was on good terms, or at least as good of terms as they could be in this situation.

"Yeah," Levi called back. "Why?"

"No reason," Daryl called back. "We're sleepin' in here tonight. Wake us up by knockin' on the door if y'all get up before us."

"Will do," Lawrence called back.

Merle closed the door and sat down against it, but still looked happier than Daryl felt he should.

"What did you do, Merle?" Daryl wondered in a quiet voice. His brother's mood had changed too quickly.

"Didn't do nothin,' Little Brother," Merle insisted. The older Dixon looked toward Glenn and his smirk immediately turned back into a frown. "Those two'll pay for whatever they did. Maybe not tonight, but they'll pay."

Daryl glanced toward Glenn and the two locked eyes, but neither spoke. Daryl wasn't sure what Merle was implying, but he didn't even want to ask.

xxxxxx


	12. Truth

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Chapter 12

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The room was silent, with a few candles lit on a table and all three men sitting quietly and contemplative on the floor. Daryl frequently looked from Merle to Glenn, trying to judge each of the other men's state of mind. Merle seemed extremely angry and on edge. Whatever he'd done that had improved his mood before seemed to have worn off by now, and he was back in his vengeful mood. Meanwhile, Glenn seemed relatively nervous, with a bit of anger of his own evident in his demeanor, yet with a certain amount of stubbornness in him as well. Glenn wouldn't answer to either Merle or Daryl when asked what had happened.

"I'll kill 'em both if I have to," Merle muttered as he was finally beginning to sober up. Of course, sober-Merle wasn't much different than drunk-Merle. The older Dixon hadn't calmed down much at all. The three of them had been in this room for a while now, and had mostly remained silent aside from an occasional angry remark from Merle. "I'm so fucking sick of these guys," the older Dixon brother added.

Daryl swallowed a lump in his throat. He'd never seen Merle this upset with anyone. If Levi and Lawrence had hurt Glenn in the same awful way Levi had attempted to hurt him before, Daryl could agree that he, Merle, and Glenn needed to get away from the other men, and very soon. Rape and even just threatening it was certainly one of the worst offenses, in Daryl's eyes, and to hurt someone as innocent and vulnerable as Glenn was beyond cruel. Even so, he wasn't sure murder would be necessary. They needed to just part ways, and maybe Merle and Daryl could rough them up a bit first, as they deserved a bit of a harsher punishment than just being left behind. Maybe not death, but something painful.

"You can tell us what happened," Daryl assured Glenn as he looked across the room at the kid and did his best to remain calm. Even though Daryl felt guilt for not keeping a better watch on Glenn, and rage toward Levi and Lawrence of taking advantage of that fact, he knew getting visibly upset like Merle was going to do nothing to get Glenn to admit to what exactly happened. "I know they probably threatened you, but they ain't gonna get a chance to deliver on those threats."

"Yeah, not if they're fuckin' dead," Merle added.

Glenn shook his head and looked away, avoiding eye contact with either of the Dixon brothers. The young man looked like had a lot on his mind though. He definitely had something he wanted to say. He just wasn't letting himself say it.

"I think you'd feel better if you talked about it," Daryl offered. "It can't be good for you to keep whatever they did to you all to yourself. We won't think any less of you. There was nothing you could do. They ganged up on you. It wasn't a fair fight. This is their fault; not yours."

Glenn still wouldn't look at him.

"We don't need to have a fuckin' therapy session if you don't want to," Merle spoke up again, "but depending on what they did to you, I'm fully ready to actually kill 'em. So if you want yer revenge, just let me know. I'll make sure they never lay a god damned finger on you ever again."

"Merle! Shut up." Daryl scowled at his older brother. Those kinds of threats were probably half the reason Glenn wouldn't talk to them. The kind-hearted young man probably didn't want his attackers killed, no matter what they'd done to him. Somehow Daryl doubted the kid believed in that sort of justice. Merle threatening to hurt Levi and Lawrence also probably made Glenn fear that if Merle didn't kill them, and just beat them up, they'd do even worse to Glenn in retaliation for the boy tattling on them.

"Lawrence said you guys took four other people before me," Glenn spoke up, finally speaking his mind after being silent for literal hours.

"No." Daryl shook his head. "Not unless I somehow didn't hear about two of 'em."

"He said Levi killed two of them, and that you and Merle killed the other two." Glenn stared at Daryl with large, dark eyes from across the room.

"That's nothin' but a god-damned lie," Merle growled.

"There were only ever two, Glenn," Daryl promised. "Levi killed 'em both."

Glenn nodded slowly, still looking unsure.

"I can only give you my word, Glenn," Daryl continued. Knowing that Lawrence had purposefully planted seeds of mistrust in Glenn's mind made him angry. Glenn had no reason not to believe what the other man said about the Dixon brothers. The kid still didn't really know anyone in the group. Putting his trust in Lawrence was just as reasonable, if not more so, than putting his trust in Daryl and Merle. On the surface, Lawrence seemed very non-threatening. Still, Daryl felt very guilty for failing to keep a better watch on the whole group. He knew Lawrence. He knew the man would take advantage of Glenn's kind, trusting nature, and of the boy's uncertainty toward the Dixons. It didn't surprise him that Lawrence had misled Glenn with the intent to hurt him. Daryl should have expected this and guarded against it, but he hadn't. "I don't know what Lawrence and Levi did to you, but I can only assume anything Lawrence told you was probably just a ploy to get you to trust him and to not trust us. I ain't perfect, and neither is Merle. But we never killed anyone that wasn't already dead..."

"He seemed so genuine." Glenn looked down at the floor. "He seemed so normal and sincere."

"That's why he's dangerous," Daryl noted. "He can get you to think he's your friend, and then he turns around and stabs you in the back. He's a very manipulative man."

Glenn nodded.

"We're not going to let them near you again," Daryl promised. "You can tell us what they did. It's not going to matter. They're gonna think you told us anyway considering we're in here guarding you like you're in the witness protection program."

Glenn looked up at Daryl and frowned.

Daryl shrugged. "I mean, I could probably guess what happened and be pretty accurate. I ain't stupid."

"Guess then," Glenn glared at him.

"Alright," Daryl agreed. "I saw you and Lawrence talking earlier. He probably told you all these lies about how me an' Merle killed people. He got you to think he was the only sane one here. He somehow convinced you to go with him away from everyone else, and then he and Levi hurt you, and told you telling us would only make them hurt you again."

Glenn frowned, but didn't deny any of it.

"I just wish you'd tell us what exactly they did," Merle spoke up. "So I'd know whether or not to kill them for it."

Daryl narrowed his eyes at his brother. Merle had never shown this much care toward any of his captives before. But Glenn was the only of the three he'd taken who hadn't really been rude. The first guy Merle brought back had been fighting him for the last bottle of some sort of alcohol. The second was pretty much just a rude person all together. Glenn had been fairly easy-going through all this, letting everyone take his bag of supplies and push him around without much of a fight. It wasn't until Levi started getting too creepy that Glenn really made much of an effort to actually fight any of them.

Come to think of it, the moment Levi had gotten too intimate with the kid seemed to be Merle's turning point as well. Since that moment, the older Dixon brother seemed overly aggravated with Levi, and almost acted protective toward Glenn. It was a strange thing to witness in Merle, who normally didn't care about anyone. Daryl wasn't sure if Merle really cared about Glenn as a person, or if he just really hated Levi's actions. Did he really want to keep Glenn safe, or did he just want to keep Levi from hurting anyone at all in that way?

"Was it like before?" Merle asked, glancing toward Glenn. "Did Levi do what he was doing before?"

Glenn swallowed and looked at the ground.

"They're not gonna hurt you again," Daryl promised, hoping he could get Glenn to talk. "If they did anything like that to you, you can tell us. They'll pay for it... And we won't let them get the chance to do it again, or to do anything else to you. You can throw all their threats right out the window, because they're not getting near you again. You can count on that."

"They didn't do what Levi was trying to do before," Glenn spoke, still not looking at either of the men.

"What did they do then? What did they do that was so bad they had to threaten you afterward? And what did they threaten to do to you if you told us?" Daryl wondered. Glenn wouldn't have been so quiet and unwilling to come forward with the truth if Levi and Lawrence hadn't done something pretty terrifying to the kid.

"They just hit me, and kicked me," Glenn finally started to talk. "Lawrence said it was my fault Brady died. He said I didn't get to tell you guys no anymore, that I didn't have that right. He said from now on, I didn't get to fight to defend myself."

"That's it?" Daryl didn't believe that. Levi wouldn't have gotten his chance to go after Glenn in the cruelest way possible only to just let Lawrence talk to him and kick him around a little. "What did Levi do? I know he didn't just hover around while Lawrence talked to you. What did he do?"

Glenn bit his lower lip and shook his head.

Daryl felt his shoulders slump. He hoped this wasn't as bad as it looked. "Tell me, Glenn." Daryl allowed his voice to sound a little more gentle than normal. Being rough and threatening to kill the other men wasn't working. Merle's tactic of being himself and threatening to kill people didn't seem to put Glenn at ease at all, so Daryl needed to make up for his older brother's harshness by being much softer than usual.

Glenn shook his head again, but continued talking. "It wasn't as bad as you guys think. Lawrence told him not to do anything nasty while he was there. That's what he said. He said to wait until Levi and I were alone to do anything like that. Lawrence wouldn't let him go as far as he wanted to. It wasn't that bad, really..." Glenn didn't sound convinced of his own words as he continued to explain in vague terms. "Levi just put his hands all over me... over my clothing, kind of... Not really as bad as it could have been. He threatened to do worse if I told you, and mostly just scared me. He didn't do anything really bad."

Daryl frowned. That sounded pretty bad to him.

"I told them not to bother you, Glenn." Merle sighed loudly and shook his head. "An' I don't say shit just for the sake of hearing myself talk. I told all three of 'em to stay the fuck away from you, and I god-damned meant it. Those fuckers are gonna learn that the hard way."

Glenn's eyes were wide as he stared at Merle. "You can't make any indication to them that I said anything. If they know I told you..." Glenn hesitated. "Please don't do anything, Merle. Just leave it alone."

Merle shrugged, but made no promises.

"Well, I hope you know Lawrence was wrong," Daryl said, trying to reassure Glenn that things would indeed be alright. "You have every right to defend yourself, Glenn. Merle and I have got your back. You can trust that, and if Levi ever touches you again, you can feel free to punch 'im as hard as you can. If you don't, I will."

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	13. Sacrifice

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Chapter 13

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The next day, the men got up bright and early to continue their journey. When they made it downstairs to the library's ground floor, it was discovered that someone had left the front door wide open all night. They were lucky walkers hadn't found their way inside, but Glenn supposed that was the kind of thing to be expected when people did stupid things like heavy drinking in the middle of an apocalyptic city. The men in this group were lucky to have lived this long, and if their stupid choices and mistakes were any indication, they weren't going to last much longer.

"You were the last one out there, Merle." Lawrence scowled at the other man as the five of them stood near the door, for some reason arguing over whose fault it was that it had been left open.

Glenn stared from one man to the next, surprised that all of these rough, violent men would bicker like this, determined to assign guilt to someone over something that didn't even matter anymore. No one had been hurt. No walkers had gotten in. It didn't matter whose fault it was, as it could have easily been any of them. They could have used this opportunity as a wakeup call - to get them to realize being irresponsible drunks when not paying attention to details could cost them their lives was no longer an option. But they didn't see it that way, and still all insisted on making an issue out of it.

"You could of got us all killed." Levi frowned.

"There was a door between the two floors," Daryl reminded them. "You weren't ever in any danger. It was just a mistake. We don't know who left it open, but it doesn't matter now. A lot of us was drinkin' last night. It could've been anyone. There's no use arguing over it now."

"The other door was open a crack too." Lawrence glared toward Daryl. "You three weren't in danger. You were in the smaller room, behind a door that was actually closed."

Glenn looked toward Merle as the other man nudged him gently. The older Dixon brother was handing him his baseball bat. Glenn smiled very slightly, glad to see that slowly but surely, certain members of this group were starting to treat him like an adult human being instead of a child or piece of luggage.

"It was a stupid mistake." Daryl continued trying to appease Lawrence and Levi, who seemed to be the only two upset about the door incident. Of course, as Lawrence had said, they were the only two whose lives could have easily ended due to the error. "Someone fucked up. We don't even know who, really... But it was probably because we were all drinking. We can learn from this. We shouldn't 'a ever been drinkin' that much anyway with the world how it is."

Glenn nodded slightly but didn't speak up. This wasn't his fight. He was actually kind of glad everyone's attention was on something other than him.

"You weren't even drinking that much. Merle was." Levi scowled at Merle.

Merle sighed very loudly. "Well, y'all can stand here all day bitching about it. I'm movin' on." He glanced toward Glenn with a very subtle smirk, and what Glenn could swear was a tiny, quick wink, before making his way out the front door and down the library's steps.

"Fuckin' idiot's gonna get us killed," Levi muttered.

Glenn ducked out the door quickly, wanting to ensure that as they traveled he did not get stuck walking with anyone other than Merle or Daryl. He wondered if Merle's little wink toward him was an admission of guilt. Had he left the two doors open on purpose, knowing that the only three people in the group he cared about were safely behind a third door? Was he hoping Levi and Lawrence would fall prey to the bloodthirsty walkers?

"You tryin' to get them killed?" Daryl spoke Glenn's thoughts aloud in a voice low enough to not be overheard as he walked up closer to Merle and Glenn.

Merle shrugged and kept walking.

"You gotta warn me if you do shit like that," Daryl spoke in a whisper. "I could'a gone out there to piss 'er somethin,' not knowin'..."

"You'd 'a had to wake up anyway," Merle noted. "I was sleepin' in front of our room's door. Don't worry 'bout what I do, Little Brother. I'm the one in charge here. I got things under control. Whatever needs to be done to keep the people I care about safe is what's gonna be done. You don't gotta worry about it."

Glenn glanced from Merle to Daryl. He wondered if he was included in the people Merle cared about. He supposed he'd probably find out... when Merle either got him killed, or went out of his way to make sure he didn't get him killed.

Glenn followed Merle's group as they moved on from the library. It seemed they were trying to make their way out of the city, just like Glenn had been. Only they weren't as good at traveling fast as Glenn was. He supposed the fact that they were a larger group mixed with a fact that most of them were usually either drunk or hung over prevented them from traveling quickly. If Glenn had been by himself, as he had tried to be, he would have been out of the city already.

Once again, Glenn stayed close to Daryl and Merle as the five men walked. The entire group had an awkward feeling about it now, even worse than yesterday. There seemed to be two distinct groups - the group who was on Levi's side, and the group who was on Glenn's side. Fortunately, Glenn actually had people on his side by this point.

Tensions were high, and Glenn wasn't sure what was going to happen among the men anymore. Would Merle really kill Levi if he tried something? Would Daryl and Merle really be willing to completely ditch their other two friends when the time came? Was Glenn really higher up on Daryl's and Merle's list of priorities than Lawrence and Levi were? Or were the Dixon brothers only annoyed at their friends temporarily? If it was true that Levi had killed two people already and no one had left the group then, that meant Daryl and Merle seemed to be able to forgive such behaviors.

Fortunately, Glenn had been allowed to carry his bat today. It seemed Merle finally trusted him enough to feel confident Glenn wouldn't swing it at the back of the older man's head the first chance he got, so Glenn didn't have to fear that the other men would end up getting him killed on accident. He was finally responsible for his own safety again, to a certain degree, at least.

None of the men even talked about the previous night, and for that, Glenn was glad. As far as Lawrence and Levi knew, Glenn really might have not told Daryl and Merle a thing about their encounter. They had no reason to be upset with Glenn and try to enact their revenge. Of course, that didn't mean they were no longer a threat.

As the five men walked along, no one spoke. Occasionally a stray walker would stumble out into the street and start following them, but someone would take care of it and the group would move on. It wasn't until they came across a larger group of walkers that things began to get a little hectic.

With undead corpses staggering after them from all directions, the five men had abandoned any hope for any sort of organized attack and had instead each gone their own way, going after each and every walker they could, and barely paying any attention to each other.

As Glenn slammed his baseball bat against one of the geeks' skulls, someone bumped against him. He turned around briefly, in time to see that it was Lawrence who had collided with him.

Glenn didn't have much time to think about whether or not the contact was intentional. Instead, he decided to go ahead and appreciate that it wasn't a zombie who had managed to sneak up on him and he went back to work at taking care of the remaining walkers.

Glenn couldn't claim that he was really necessarily very good at taking out walkers. That's why he ordinarily just avoided them and ran past them. That was harder to do when the group he was with was slower than him though. They wanted to take out each threat rather than run on, which meant Glenn was pretty much forced to go along with it. Fortunately, they were quicker about taking out the walkers than he was, so he didn't have to do all that much work.

Swinging his bat at the head of yet another walker, Glenn breathed in and out, tiredly, trying to catch his breath as he looked around himself. The small batch of zombies were pretty much taken care of by now. Glenn straightened himself back up and wiped some sweat off his brow as he looked around to see how everyone else was doing.

By this point, Daryl was collecting a few arrows that he'd shot into the geeks' skulls. Merle was using a knife to finish off a couple who had been knocked down, but not quite killed. Lawrence was to Glenn's left, using one of the walker's shirts to clean blood off his knife. Levi was unaccounted for.

Glenn looked around, turning himself to his right in time to catch Levi who was coming up behind him.

"I know you guys are up to something," Levi growled in Glenn's ear as he wrapped his huge hand around Glenn's wrist. The man's rough fingers lay heavily on bruises they'd created previously.

"Get off of me," Glenn said in an angry, yet hushed tone, hoping to avoid attracting the attention of Merle or Daryl. This didn't need to be turned into an ordeal. He just needed to try to stay away from this guy until he could get away from him once and for all.

"I see what's going on. Merle and Daryl are wanting to leave the group. I can tell. They probably told you they're gonna take you with them. You know Merle only wants you for himself. If I can't have you, I don't see why he should," Levi growled, squeezing Glenn's wrist even tighter and leaning in toward him.

Glenn winced and leaned away as he noticed Merle had caught on and was making his way over to the two of them.

"You want me to stab you in the fuckin' neck, Levi?" Merle threatened.

Glenn wasn't sure if these men talked to each other jokingly like this all the time, but Levi didn't seem all that offended by the threat. "I was just thanking Glenn for saving me a minute ago. One of 'em almost bit me, and he took it out before it could. Thanks, little kid," Levi winked toward Glenn.

"No problem." Glenn yanked his arm away from Levi and made his way back over toward Daryl.

"What'd he say to you?" Daryl wondered in a low voice as Glenn approached him.

"Nothing." Glenn shrugged. "We were just talking about a walker."

"Alright..." Daryl didn't look convinced as he looked over toward Levi with narrowed eyes.

As they walked on, Glenn noticed Merle was sure to keep himself near Levi and Lawrence. He wasn't sure if the older Dixon brother was doing so in order to keep tabs on the other two and be sure they weren't plotting anything, or if Merle was somehow plotting something with them himself. Regardless, Glenn kept close to Daryl.

"Let's check this store for water," Daryl suggested as they neared a convenience store. "We're running low."

The others agreed and they made their way inside. Each of the five men went their own way, after their own desires. Merle was over by the liquor. As was Lawrence, who had lied to Glenn yesterday and said he didn't drink. Glenn frowned, angry with himself for being too trusting and ending up getting hurt because of it.

Glenn made his way around the store. He didn't really care what he found here, because he wasn't confident that the'd be able to actually keep any of it. At any moment, any one of these men could take all of his supplies, and at any moment, if need be, Glenn might run off and leave anything and everything behind if he had to.

He walked into a corner of the store and began looking at a shelf full of cans. Most of the best stuff in the store was already gone, as it always was. The cans on this shelf seemed to be mostly various types of pie filling. If Glenn had an oven handy, he may have taken a few, but the thought of eating plain, raw pie filling kind of made him feel sick. He's save that sort of desperation for later. For now, there were still usually plenty of canned fruits and vegetables still around. He didn't need to resort to pie filling just yet.

Glenn winced when he looked up from the cans in time to see that Levi was standing on the other side of the shelf. The older man gave him a small smirk, but said nothing.

As Glenn ignored Levi and began making his way back down the aisle, he noticed the tall, metal shelf was leaning over toward him. He glanced back toward Levi, only to realize the man was actually working toward shoving the metal shelf over onto its side.

With a gasp, Glenn tried to move faster, but it was too late. Levi pushed the shelf over. Fortunately, much of it caught on the wall and didn't crush him, but some of the individual pieces of shelving slid off along with the heavy cans of pie filling.

Glenn ducked and covered his head and face with his arms as cans and pieces of the shelf piled on top of him. In a matter of only a few seconds, he felt someone grabbing at him and pulling him out of the heap of rubble by his arms.

"Woah, be careful, little kid." Levi smirked down at him as he pulled him free of the pile of cans and metal shelving and made a point to brush his hands over Glenn's shirt as though clearing some imaginary debris off him.

Pulling away from Levi, Glenn stared up at the other man. It was very apparent that Levi had knocked the shelf over onto Glenn on purpose. It was also very clear that Glenn was fully aware of that fact. Levi didn't care. He just pretended like he had nothing to do with it and obviously expected Glenn to do the same.

Glenn winced as he put weight on his foot. He must have twisted his ankle.

Levi was quick to put his arm around Glenn's back, resting his hand on Glenn's waist and dragging him away from the mess Levi himself had just created. "I know you told Merle and Daryl," he whispered in Glenn's ear.

"I didn't tell them anything," Glenn growled as he tried to shrug out of Levi's grip. He didn't care if walking on his ankle hurt. He'd rather feel that pain than accept help from Levi.

Levi's arm remained securely around Glenn's body as he leaned down very close and whispered in Glenn's ear. "I can tell by the way Merle an' Daryl are acting. You told them."

"Did it ever occur to you that they figured it out on their own? Why on earth would I tell them what you did?" Glenn hissed in a low whisper. The situation was humiliating. Talking about two other men beating him and one of them sexually assaulting him for a second time wasn't exactly something to be proud of, and if Merle and Daryl hadn't pressed the issue so persistently, Glenn really wouldn't have told them. The brothers really did figure it out on their own, for the most part. "I've got more bruises up and down my arms than I can count. They seem to think you and Lawrence did something, but that's their only evidence. I've denied everything. Anything they suspect is your fault."

Levi narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the bruises on Glenn's arms. He then brought his hand up to Glenn throat, placing his fingers there lightly and then running them up to Glenn's face. Glenn winced and flinched back as Levi's fingers touched a sore spot on his bruised cheek.

"You are covered in bruises. I guess Lawrence and I should have been more careful," Levi noted. "Ya even got finger marks on your neck... So much for us being discrete." He laughed softly. "But the important thing is that they do know we did something... and that's a problem."

Glenn didn't fight back much. He didn't want to cause a commotion or make Levi any more angry with him. Even so, he made a small effort to pull himself out of Levi's grip. "Let me go," he added in a quiet, yet demanding voice. By now the other men were making their way over toward Glenn and Levi, as they had heard the shelf fall.

"Don't go climbing up shelves like that," Levi said loudly, so that everyone else in the store could clearly hear him. "Cherry pie filling isn't worth getting hurt over, little kid," he added as he pulled Glenn closer against his own side.

Glenn had to fight the urge to push Levi away and start a physical fight similar to the one that had ended in Brady's death the morning before. But he didn't want to start anything among the men if he didn't have to. Surely Levi wouldn't try to do anything too horrible to him right here in the store, with Daryl and Merle in the same room. So Glenn held still and allowed Levi to drag him along. He noticed by now that Daryl, Merle, and Lawrence were all coming forward to meet Levi and Glenn in the middle of the store.

Without a word, Daryl shoved Levi out of the way and put his own arm around Glenn's shoulders, pulling him away from the other man and looking down at him. "You alright?" the younger Dixon asked.

"Yeah," Glenn answered, putting weight on his ankle again. It still hurt when he walked on it, but it didn't seem broken. "I'm fine."

Daryl glared at Levi, but said nothing to him.

"Let's get outta here," Merle spoke up after shooting a very quick but suspicious glance Levi's way.

Glenn held onto Daryl as they walked, so he wouldn't have to put as much weight on his ankle. Fortunately, Daryl didn't seem to have an issue with this gesture.

"You sure you're alright?" Daryl spoke in a low voice as they walked ahead of the rest of the group.

"Yes," Glenn assured him. The injury seemed less significant as the minutes passed. In fact, the longer they walked, the less it hurt. It probably wasn't even really sprained or twisted. He didn't bother mentioning the fact that Levi had pushed the shelf over onto him on purpose. Glenn still had a fair amount of fear in him of what Levi might do if Glenn said or did anything to get him in trouble with Daryl or Merle. It wasn't worth mentioning if it might mean Levi would retaliate later.

"Was Levi sayin' somethin' to you before we got over there?" Daryl wondered.

Glenn shook his head but didn't speak. Even though the things Levi had just said to him had seemed vaguely threatening, Glenn hoped he wouldn't really need to worry about ever being alone with the other man again. Daryl and Merle had both seemed to be on board with ditching Lawrence and Levi soon. If Glenn could just keep the peace until then, he wouldn't need to worry about Levi anymore. Getting all the men angry with each other wasn't going to make things any easier.

Daryl carefully let go of Glenn in favor of shooting down a few walkers which were blocking their path. Lawrence ran ahead and did the same. Glenn readied his baseball bat and moved forward carefully, ready to assist the others if they needed him do.

As several walkers stumbled out of an alley behind them, Glenn went toward them instead, so they couldn't sneak up on Daryl and Lawrence. Not that he really cared much what happened to Lawrence at this point.

He swung his bat at one of the walkers' heads just as he felt someone shove him, hard, from behind. Glenn fell forward, catching himself with his hands, but losing his bat in the process. It scuttled across the pavement, out of his reach as the couple geeks he hadn't gotten to yet moved in on him.

Glenn gasped and rolled away from them, but wasn't sure what to do next. They were getting very close, and now, in addition to his ankle throbbing, his wrists did too, from catching himself so hard after his unexpected fall. He forced himself to use his limbs anyway, scurrying back as quickly as he could manage while the walkers closed on on him.

Just as he was sure he was finally going to run out of luck and get bitten, Glenn heard an angry, almost-growling sound coming from behind him. He looked over his shoulder in time to see Merle harshly shove Levi forward into the small group of walkers. Levi stumbled and fell just like Glenn had, distracting the geeks long enough for Merle to rush over to Glenn and pull him up by his arm.

Glenn grimaced as he saw one of the walkers tear out a chunk of flesh from Levi's neck, while another clawed its hands relentlessly into the man's stomach. Levi and Glenn locked eyes for a moment as Glenn winced and Levi screamed a terrible, shrill, pained howl.

Blood spurted out of the large gash now decorating Levi's throat as the struggling man brought his hands up to the wound in a desperate, futile attempt to save himself. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Glenn stared at the scene in horror. He was frozen in fear and disgust and even confusion as he witnessed what were most definitely the last moments of another man's life.

As Glenn breathed rapid, almost panicked breaths, he blinked several times, bringing himself back to the present and forcing himself to actually act instead of just standing still, gaping at Levi in shock as the other man was literally torn apart.

Unfortunately, Glenn had lost his weapon when Levi shoved him. If Glenn had still possessed his baseball bat, he'd have helped Levi. Even though the man had hurt him and threatened him, and had even pushed him forward just now, obviously trying to get him killed, Glenn didn't think anyone deserved to be eaten alive.

Merle must not have felt the same way. "Come on." He pulled Glenn back.

"We can't just leave him here," Glenn gasped, his eyes darting from Merle to Levi.

Merle actually rolled his eyes as he looked down at Glenn. "He'd 'a left you," Merle noted. "Let's go."

Glenn shook his head as he continued staring down at Levi who was desperately grabbing at the various arms and hands clawing out his vital organs. The man's blood was absolutely everywhere, but he continued screaming and fighting. As much as Glenn hated the guy, he didn't feel right leaving him here to be eaten alive. If Merle wouldn't help Levi, Glenn would, even if the only way he could help at this point would be by killing the walkers and making the man's inevitable death just a bit less horrific.

Merle held onto Glenn's arm tightly, pulling him away from the scene. "I need my bat," Glenn said in a small voice, eyeing the bat which had rolled to the edge of the street. Levi was still screaming just feet away from it. Glenn had to kill the geeks feasting on the still-living man. It was the right thing to do. Even Levi, one of the worst people Glenn had ever met, didn't deserve to die like this.

Lawrence rushed up to them before Glenn could get a chance to take care of the situation on his own. "Oh my god!" Lawrence screamed as he began shooting at the walkers, and unfortunately making as much noise as possible in his state of panic. Daryl followed the other man and shot arrows into the skulls of the two geeks Lawrence missed.

As soon as the walkers were all put down, Daryl grimaced and looked toward Merle and Glenn with narrowed eyes, but remained silent, as Glenn had noticed by now the younger Dixon brother seemed to often do. While Merle seemed to love nothing more than to speak his mind at every opportunity, Daryl seemed to be more of a contemplative observer.

"What happened!?" Lawrence looked shocked as his eyes roamed frantically over the scene and as he rushed up to Levi who was sputtering, choking on his own blood. Lawrence put his hand on Levi's face and may not even heard what Merle said in response.

"He was actin' stupid and got 'imself killed," the older Dixon answered simply, walking over toward Glenn's bat, picking it up off the ground and handing it to him. "Let's move on."

"He's suffering, Merle!" Lawrence growled. "We can't just leave him here!"

Glenn looked back and forth between Lawrence and Merle. He didn't know what to do. While Glenn certainly agreed that it would be cruel to leave Levi here to die a slow, painful death once more geeks came to finish him off, he also knew the man's injuries were far too severe for them to hope to let him continue along with them until they could find him somewhere comfortable to die. He was likely minutes away from death already, considering all the blood he'd already lost. Someone needed to show Levi some mercy and help him die quickly, now... but Glenn knew he couldn't be the one to do it. Someone needed to, but Glenn simply couldn't.

"He's gonna die anyway," Daryl commented as he looked down at Levi, who was still coughing up so much blood he couldn't even manage to speak. "Someone's gotta put 'im out of his misery," Daryl spoke the words Glenn was thinking, but which he couldn't bring himself to actually say out loud.

Daryl glanced toward Glenn for a moment, as if offering to let Glenn do it, but Glenn immediately shook his head. This was not some sort of revenge prize for him. He didn't want to kill Levi. He never had wanted to. He just wanted the guy to leave him alone.

"I can't do it!" Lawrence sounded upset as he cradled Levi's head in his lap. The dying man's blood was everywhere, seeping into Lawrence's clothing and dripping onto the street. "He was my friend! He was your friend too, Merle! How could you let this happen? You didn't even try to stop it!"

"I didn't let anything happen. He brought this on himself," Merle growled. "This guy was out of control and you know it! You didn't see it how I did. He shoved Glenn toward the walkers, and then ended up getting tripped up himself. Your friend is dying right now because of his own stupidity. He tried to screw someone over and screwed himself over instead. End of story."

Glenn stared with wide eyes from Merle to Levi. Merle gave him a half-second long look and a very subtle nod. Glenn knew Merle had purposefully pushed Levi into that group of walkers. Sure, Levi had done the same thing to Glenn first, but somehow it still felt very cruel to him.

"No use arguing over it. He's gone, and no amount of arguing's gonna bring 'im back." Daryl aimed his crossbow and fired a single arrow into Levi's head.

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	14. Trimming The Fat

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Chapter 14

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The air around the group was extremely heavy with tension as they moved on. It was very apparent that Lawrence was upset at Levi's demise, and he clearly seemed suspicious that Merle had perhaps been somehow involved.

Glenn couldn't help but feel nervous as he walked along, and as he kept a close watch on everyone in the group. It bothered him that Merle had killed Levi when he hadn't really had to. It was in a way in defense of Glenn, but was it really necessary? Couldn't Merle have just pulled Glenn away from the walkers or started killing them? Did he have to throw Levi into their grasp as a distraction?

It also bothered Glenn that Daryl had shot the dying man between the eyes with seemingly no regret whatsoever. This was a man Daryl had been traveling with for some time, who he'd probably gotten to know. And even if Levi wasn't the most moral of the group, he was still a person, and a person Daryl knew. It was just all so brutal and without emotion.

Glenn glanced toward Lawrence, who glared back at him angrily. He hoped the man didn't blame him for Levi's death for any reason. In Lawrence's eyes, Glenn was already responsible for Brady's death. Glenn really did have nothing to do with this one. It was true that before, in the alley where Brady died, Glenn could have chosen to ignore Levi's sickening touch and could have just suffered through being near the man. Glenn honestly did start the fight, or at least the loud and violent part - the distracting part. Maybe it really was Glenn's fault Brady died. But Levi's death wasn't on him. Glenn couldn't have done anything to prevent this one.

"What really happened back there?" Daryl wondered in a low voice as he walked up next to Glenn. "Did Merle push him?"

Glenn hesitated. He wondered if Merle meant for that to remain a secret, even from Daryl.

"I don't know," Glenn lied. "Someone shoved me from behind, and I assume it was Levi. Then the walkers were coming after me and I was focused on that, until Levi fell forward and distracted them. I don't know what happened."

Daryl nodded. "Lawrence is probably gonna blame you for this. Be careful around him."

"I know." Glenn exhaled tiredly.

"I'll keep an eye on 'im too, Glenn," Daryl offered. "But hey, at least the three of us leaving is lookin' like it's gonna be easy. With each passing day, we got one less man to worry about." He offered a small smirk.

Glenn grimaced. It didn't really seem like something to joke about.

Daryl slowed his pace as Merle quickened his. It seemed the brothers had some unspoken communication that they were going to take turns keeping an eye on Lawrence.

"I could see in your eyes that you didn't like what I did back there," Merle spoke in a very low whisper as he walked next to Glenn and leaned slightly toward him. "It was for your own good."

"You didn't have to kill him, Merle," Glenn whispered back.

"He attacked you, Glenn, more than once. Hell, he was gonna have his way with you, an' didn't care at all that you begged him to stop," Merle reminded him. "How much further did you want me to let him take this before doing something about it?"

Glenn frowned and looked at the ground as they walked. He didn't really want to have that memory come back up.

"And he probably pushed that shelf on you, you know. Just so he could be the one to help you back up, for any excuse to put his filthy hands on you again... And then, most importantly, he tried to shove you into a mob of walkers," Merle continued. "Did you think at some point he was just gonna give you a big ol' hug, tell you he was sorry, and never mess with you again? He was a threat to you. Every moment that he wasn't dead, you were at risk. If I didn't have to kill him this time, I would have had to later. It was only a matter of time."

Glenn shook his head softly and looked ahead as they walked onward.

"If I'd 'a waited, maybe he'd have actually killed you, Glenn," Merle noted. "Or maybe, if he survived until tonight, he would have found some way to get you alone, an' he would'a finished what he started a few days ago. I know Daryl an' me said we'd keep a better watch on the situation, but maybe Levi would'a cared more about gettin' his hands on you than me and Daryl bein' alive. Maybe he'd of killed the two of us, an' kept you as his little toy for the rest of your miserable life. With no one around to stop him, who knows what sorta sick shit he'd of done..."

"Stop it, Merle," Glenn shook his head, not wanting to hear about any of that.

"I can tell you're still mad," Merle continued. "I did what I had to do, and if I could go back, I'd do it again. While we're at it, if I could go back, I'da done is sooner. Shit... It's not like he was ever really useful anyway. I was trimmin' the fat, so to speak. Gettin' rid of a big, heavy, dangerous burden me an' my brother'd been draggin' around with us for way too long. He's lucky I didn't end him days or even weeks ago. I never did nothin' to 'im 'til he made me. I could'a killed him a long time ago, and ain't no one would'a cared."

"I'm not mad," Glenn hissed in a low voice as he looked over toward the man who had kidnapped him off the street less than three days prior. "I'm just kinda disturbed, to be honest. I'll admit it's a relief to have him gone... but not like this. I can't make sense of choosing to give someone the death penalty, like you did. You didn't even have time to think about it... Just right there on the spot, you chose that he deserved to die, and you made it happen."

"He did the same thing to you," Merle cocked his head to the side and looked at Glenn like the younger man was being completely unreasonable.

"I just can't see how you could make that choice. He was unreasonable. He tried to kill me because he was completely unhinged. He made that choice because he was immoral and awful. Why'd you choose to kill him?" Glenn looked up at Merle.

For a moment, Merle simply stared down at him with pale, blue eyes, as though actually contemplating the question for once. Merle seemed like the type of person who mostly only listened to himself, but he really did seem to be considering what Glenn was saying this time.

"Sometimes you gotta make a choice that you wouldn't ordinarily make," Merle explained. "I'm not in the business of delivering the death penalty to everyone who pisses me off. But this guy wanted to hurt you, and tried to get you killed. Let's just say it was kind of a choice I was forced to make - did I want him to kill you, or did I want to just kill him? It was between the two of you, and I guess I like you more than him. So I chose to let him go for your sake. It had to be one of you, and I didn't want to wait for him to make the decision. Hopefully I don't got to make a choice between you and Lawrence next." Merle glanced back behind them.

Glenn glanced back there too. Daryl and Lawrence were walking together and Daryl seemed to be trying to console the other man. The two of them were speaking in hushed tones just as Merle and Glenn had been. Glenn wondered if this group's dynamic had always been this horrifically flawed. Did they always split up into groups and whisper and keep all their conversations so contained? Did Merle ever sacrifice anyone else to walkers when he felt they were becoming too threatening? Or had Glenn's arrival completely turned the group on its head?

"Don't kill Lawrence, Merle." Glenn frowned.

"I'll only kill 'im if he makes me. It's up to him." Merle raised his eyebrows and smirked down at Glenn. "Like I said before, if he makes me choose between him and you, he's out."

Glenn inhaled and exhaled tiredly. "Murder's not the answer to everything, Merle."

"It's the answer to some things, Glenn," Merle noted. "He was escalating every day. The only thing that could have been different, would have been if I left him alone a little longer, waited for him to really hurt you, or actually kill you... He knew he was pushin' my buttons. He knew I don't put up with shit like that. He's lucky he lasted as long as he did. He pushed my limits too far, and now he's gone. Besides, all I did was shove him a little. A lot nicer than what he did to you."

"I guess I can't argue with that." Glenn looked forward again. Of course, he could have argued with Merle. He still felt what Merle did was pretty harsh, but he wasn't going to change the man's outlook just by talking to him. Merle was obviously a little stuck in his ways.

He glanced behind himself at Daryl and Lawrence again. Lawrence still seemed upset. Glenn hoped the man wouldn't do anything crazy. He was, after all, still armed with a gun and a knife. If he wanted to, he could choose in an instant to end any one of their lives, and maybe more than just one. It seemed like a bad idea to allow the guy to continue on with a loaded weapon, but Glenn certainly didn't know how to go about disarming him either.

"Daryl and I ain't from the city." Merle changed the subject and, surprisingly, actually started to talk to Glenn like a normal human being would, giving the boy a glimpse of who he actually was. "We came into the city one day about two months ago, but we had to leave our truck back a ways. We stayed longer than we intended to, movin' around to different buildings, meeting people, just playin' around using the dead ones as target practice... We met Brady and Lawrence early on. They seemed alright, so we stuck with them, and met Levi a week or so later. Man... until I spent some time with them, I thought I was an asshole. But I don't even compare to them."

Glenn nodded. "I can't disagree with you there," he laughed.

Merle chuckled too. "I never expected to like you, Glenn. Like I said, I'm an asshole. I like makin' people's lives hell, and that was my intention when I spotted you down there, walking along in the middle of the street like a lost puppy. I just wanted to see how you'd respond. I knew you couldn't physically fight back, so I took advantage. But I didn't know what my guys were capable of."

"Didn't you say you brought back two other people just like me? And didn't you say Levi murdered them?" Glenn frowned.

"Well, yeah." Merle shrugged. "But they was different than you. Levi killed the first guy on accident, but he kinda deserved it for being selfish. The second guy was a dick. He was rude little fucker, actin' all entitled and like he was better 'n us..."

"But Levi killed them. Being selfish or rude doesn't give someone the right to kill you." Glenn grimaced.

"Well, I was gonna keep an eye on you anyway," Merle explained, "When you didn't seem too into fighting back, I figured Levi wouldn't get too violent with you. An' I never seen him do anything like what he was tryin' to do to you before... I didn't know he was that sort of person, so I didn't think I needed to keep a watch on you. I guess I didn't really care either, at first..."

Glenn fought the urge to shudder at the memory of Levi's groping hands and at the thought that if Merle hadn't decided to start giving a damn, Levi would have taken his threats and violence so much further.

"I don't know what it was, but somethin' about you changed my mind, an' I started caring," Merle explained, glancing down at Glenn and looking at him thoughtfully again. "Maybe it's just 'cause Levi was being so god damned awful, and I felt bad for ya."

Glenn nodded. That did seem like it was about the time when Merle eased up a bit and stopped regularly threatening to kill him.

"Anyway, I know I told you you couldn't leave," Merle added. "And I still mean that, but it's different now. I do want you to be able to choose to leave when you're ready to, but since you and us are goin' in the same direction, we might as well stick together until we're out of the city. My brother an' I will watch your back until we're out of the populated areas. An' that way, when we choose to leave Lawrence behind, if he lives that long, that is, you'll know he's not gonna be coming after you. We'll get you out of the city, like you would have already been by now if I hadn't bothered you in the first place. It's the least I could do..."

"Alright," Glenn agreed. "I'll stick with you guys until we're out of the city. But then I'm gone."

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	15. Denouement

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Chapter 15

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"Is that your truck up there?" Lawrence called out as the four men finally reached a parking lot near the edge of the city. They'd had to climb over a fence to get to it, which explained why the truck was abandoned there in the first place.

"That's it," Merle called back to him.

"Thought we were going to get him lost from us before we got back to the truck," Daryl muttered under his breath so that only Merle and Glenn could hear him.

Glenn frowned and kept a close watch on Lawrence. He had a bad feeling that the guy wasn't going to just forget about the recent deaths of his two friends. Glenn wasn't sure the man was going to become easily lost from the rest of them either. What were they going to do? Just push him down, jump in the truck and speed off? How were they possibly going to pull this off?

"I'm gonna check the fluids before we get going," Merle said as he walked over to the vehicle and lifted the truck's hood. He checked the oil level first, replacing the stick and then moving on to the next thing. "Don't want this piece of junk breaking down again," he grumbled. "Especially not at night."

The sun was due to set in the next half-hour, so Merle was making good use of what little daylight they had. Glenn looked around the area, being sure to be mindful that both Lawrence and walkers were potential threats. A single walker paced toward them on the other side of the parking lot. It was far enough away that they didn't need to worry about it though, so long as they got out of here quickly. Hopefully Merle's vehicle inspection wouldn't take much longer.

"I got it," Lawrence spoke up when he noticed Glenn looking across the lot. He aimed his gun and fired a very loud, echoing shot, completely missing the geek in the distance.

Glenn winced and shrunk down a bit.

"Leave it," Daryl told the other man. "It's still far away and the noise'll just attract more."

"No, I got it." Lawrence fired another shot, missing once again.

"You're wasting bullets, Lawrence," Daryl growled, taking a step toward the other man.

Lawrence glared at him and fired yet again.

Glenn looked nervously from Lawrence, to Daryl, and then back at Lawrence again. It was very apparent now that Daryl was getting frustrated with the other man. It was also quite clear that Lawrence was trying to prove some sort of point. Glenn wasn't sure what point that was though...

"If you wanna waste all your bullets, go right ahead," Daryl scoffed throwing his hands up and walking back toward Merle to speed up the process of checking the truck. "How much gas did we have in this thing?" Daryl asked his brother.

Glenn didn't bother listening to the Dixon brothers' conversation. He was more concerned with Lawrence, who making as much noise as humanly possible for no reason. He stood still and continued watching Lawrence, who fortunately hadn't fired another shot since Daryl walked off.

Lawrence glanced toward Glenn for a moment, but didn't say anything. Glenn didn't speak either. He certainly didn't know what to say to the man, and really didn't want to talk to him if he didn't have to.

Turning back toward the walker, Lawrence raised his gun up, aiming very carefully this time, holding the gun steady, but never firing the shot. Glenn silently watched. Surely he was going to make the shot this time, after so carefully aiming.

It wasn't until Lawrence began moving his arms and aiming more to the right that Glenn became suspicious. He wasn't even aiming at the walker anymore, and his arms were still panning over even further.

Glenn felt his blood run cold when he realized what Lawrence was doing. He was moving his aim over toward the truck, toward Daryl and Merle.

"Lawrence, no!" Glenn shouted, jumping toward the man and tackling him down onto the ground just as he fired the shot.

The sound of the gun shot was deafening since Glenn had gotten himself so close right before Lawrence had fired his weapon. He hoped the shot hadn't hit Daryl or Merle, but he didn't have time to check, as Lawrence was already fighting with him to regain control of the situation.

Glenn reached toward the gun which was still in Lawrence's hand. If he didn't get a grip on it soon, there was a good chance the other man was going to kill someone. But Lawrence held onto it tightly. By now, both men had a hand on the gun, but Lawrence was the one in control of the trigger, as his finger was still hovering over it.

Lawrence easily threw Glenn off him, but didn't stop there. He moved so that he was hovering over Glenn, hit him across the cheek with the gun and quickly stood up and took aim.

"I am beyond sick of you, Glenn," Lawrence growled as he aimed his weapon toward Glenn's chest.

Glenn held his breath and squeezed his eyes shut as he prepared for the worst. He still had no idea how Daryl and Merle had fared. It was possible one of them had been shot, in which case the other was surely trying to save his brother. This meant no one was going to stop Lawrence from finishing off all three of them.

Flinching and curling in on himself, Glenn covered his face with his arms as soon as he heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.

For a moment, he simply lay still, afraid to move and uncertain if he was alive or dead. Had he been hit? Why didn't he feel it? Was that much adrenaline coursing through him that he couldn't even feel a bullet wound?

Glenn opened his eyes and moved his hands away from his face. He looked up. Lawrence wasn't standing over him anymore. Glenn moved his hands cautiously but quickly over his chest. There was no blood, no pain, and no obvious injuries.

It was only a matter of seconds before he noticed Daryl standing over him, offering a hand down to him. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion and some disconnect was preventing him from hearing whatever Daryl was saying to him. He could hear voices, or what sounded like voices, but they sounded almost like he was under water.

The older man grabbed both of Glenn's hands and pulled him upward, leaning in close to Glenn and continuing to speak, though in his state of confusion and panic, Glenn still wasn't sure what the other man was saying.

Glenn narrowed his eyes and focused on Daryl's lips, trying to understand why the man's mouth was moving, but no words were reaching his ears. Daryl shook him slightly and continued speaking, but Glenn was too frazzled to make sense of any of it...

... ... ...

Daryl stared down at Glenn with worried eyes as he tried to make sure the kid was alright. He and Merle had been focused intently on the truck when they'd heard Glenn scream, followed by a gunshot. When he looked over to see what was going on, he noticed Lawrence and Glenn rolling around on the ground, fighting for control of the weapon. Lawrence had gained the upper hand so quickly Daryl didn't have time to attempt to help Glenn before the other man was standing over him and aiming for the kill.

It was then that Merle had taken the liberty to fix the problem on his own, shooting Lawrence without hesitation, but Daryl still wasn't sure if Glenn had been injured by the initial shot.

As he hauled the boy up off the ground, asking him if he was alright, Glenn just stared at him like he was speaking in an alien language.

"Glenn," Daryl nearly shouted. "Are you hurt?"

Glenn stared at him with confusion evident in his features as he looked down at the ground toward Lawrence and then over Daryl's shoulder toward Merle.

"Glenn!" Daryl yelled again, drawing the boy's attention back toward him. "You alright?"

For a moment, Glenn simply stared at him again, but finally opened his mouth, pausing for a moment before speaking, "Daryl? Are you alright? Is Merle okay?" Glenn looked back toward Merle again.

Daryl couldn't help but smile. "We're fine, Glenn. Are you?"

Glenn hesitated, looking down at himself and running his hands over his chest and stomach. "I think so..."

Daryl put his hands on Glenn's arms and stepped back, looking the kid over himself to make sure, as the young man seemed kind of out of it.

"He was going to shoot you, or maybe Merle," Glenn spoke, immediately defending his actions as though he felt guilty for what had happened, even though it had been Merle who actually killed the other man. "I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have time to think, so I just tackled him."

"He could have killed you." Daryl frowned.

"If I didn't do something, he would have killed you and Merle." Glenn pouted.

"I know," Daryl agreed. "I'm not saying you shouldn't have done it. I'm glad you did. I'm just glad he didn't shoot you."

"You guys alright over there?" Merle shouted from by the truck.

Glenn looked over Daryl's shoulder to see that Merle was still looking under the truck's hood. Daryl could see in Glenn's eyes that the boy was a little shocked that Merle could actually shoot and kill someone and then go back to working on the truck like the whole situation was no big deal.

"He's fine," Daryl called back. He looked down at Glenn. "You still coming with us?" he wondered. At this point, he wouldn't have blamed Glenn if he wanted to get away from the Dixon brothers as soon as possible. However, he also didn't feel right about leaving the kid alone, especially right here by the city, so close to nightfall, and without a vehicle.

Glenn inhaled a shaking breath, looking from Merle to Daryl. "I guess so... For now at least," he answered.

Daryl smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Why don't you wait in the truck," he offered, hoping to get Glenn away from Lawrence's body. He also now needed to take care of the walker Lawrence had failed to kill earlier, as it was getting a little too close for comfort at this point.

"Okay,. Glenn made his way over to the truck and climbed inside, closing the door carefully behind him as though trying not to make any more noise than necessary. Of course, the several gun shots Lawrence had fired off probably already made all the noise needed to attract the attention to all the walkers in the area.

Daryl put an arrow in place on his crossbow and aimed it at the walker's head, firing off a shot and then going to retrieve the arrow, putting his foot on the rotting corpse's head and using it as leverage to pull the arrow out.

He made his way back over to Merle, keeping an eye on their surroundings all the while. Surely more walkers were on their way after all that noise.

"What are we gonna do with Glenn?" Daryl wondered in a low voice as he stood next to Merle.

"What do you mean?" Merle looked over toward him.

"Are we gonna keep him with us?" Daryl wondered.

"If he wants to stay, yeah," Merle answered.

"Do you think he'll want to?" Daryl raised an eyebrow. He wasn't really sure what Glenn was thinking most of the time.

"I don't know." Merle shrugged. "We'll ask him and see."

xxxxxx


	16. Commencement

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Chapter 16

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Glenn sat still in between Daryl and Merle as they drove down the highway out of Atlanta. When he was first on his way out of the city over forty-eight hours ago, he never thought it would be this difficult of a feat to achieve.

He'd expected to run into walkers, to have to plan alternate routes at the last minute, and to maybe worry more about finding clean water than anything else. He certainly didn't expect that he'd meet five of the roughest men he'd ever encountered. He didn't expect to witness three of them die within two days, and he definitely didn't expect to actually grow attached to two of them.

It was true that Merle had taken him against his will. It was true that two days ago, Glenn had been so fearful of Merle that he fully expected the man to throw him over a ledge and off a building. But he didn't fear the man anymore. Merle, the guy who had seemed the most threatening out of any of them from the start, turned out to be one of the least threatening of the group. While Merle had dragged Glenn into danger, he'd also helped him out of it. For some reason, the man seemed to have developed a soft spot for the boy. Glenn wasn't sure why Merle had changed his mind about him, but he was glad for it, and by now, he honestly believed Merle might just be a good person, as Daryl had said before.

Merle was a little rough around the edges, but he'd stood up for Glenn's sake more than once. He'd even killed for him. While that may have been a frightening thought on the surface, it was also comforting to know that the older Dixon brother cared enough about Glenn's well-being to make a tough choice like that. Maybe Glenn needed to be around someone willing to make those sorts of choices, since he couldn't bring himself to do the same.

Daryl was he same way, minus the tendency to jump to the conclusion that murder was the best answer to most problems. The younger Dixon brother had been less brutal right from the start, so it wasn't so shocking that he'd go out of his way to save Glenn's life and help him out of dangerous situations.

Even so, it was a wonder even one of the brothers had turned out to be better people than they had initially seemed, let alone both of them. It was strange to think the two of them had ended up with such awful traveling companions. Of course, the Dixon brothers seemed a lot more rough at first glance. Without delving too deep, they seemed to fit in with the others perfectly fine. Perhaps their thoughts upon joining the other men were that having more people to all watch each other's backs was the safest choice. Only later did they discover that Levi, Brady, and Lawrence weren't even good for that much.

Now there were only two left from the initial group of five, and they were the two that seemed to have some sense of morals, even if Merle's were a little questionable sometimes. Glenn no longer worried that either of them might snap and kill him. These two weren't actually so unreasonable after all.

Earlier, Merle had suggested to Glenn that he could continue to travel with them until they were out of the city. He'd implied that once they were in a safer location, Glenn would be free to go. But was Glenn really ready to go?

It's not like he was ever actually going to make his way to Michigan to find his family, and if he did make it, he feared they wouldn't be there... or they would be there, up and walking around, no longer themselves. He didn't ever want to see them like that. Perhaps not knowing their fate at all was the best option to keep him sane.

"We're gonna drive out toward the country, toward where we used to live," Daryl spoke up from Glenn's right. Glenn looked over to him as he talked. "We might not stay at the house, but if it seems safe, we could stay there for a while at least. You're welcome to stay with us as long as you want."

Glenn nodded, contemplating that offer.

"Now, I understand that you got your own life goin' on," Daryl continued. "But neither of us would mind if you want to stay with us. Right, Merle?"

Merle nodded. "You're good with me, boy," he agreed. "You've already proved you're quick, capable, useful, loyal to a fault..."

Glenn frowned. He didn't really feel like he'd proven himself to be any of those things. He wasn't quick enough to escape from Merle's group the two times he'd tried. He wasn't capable enough to fend off the walkers who nearly killed him when he'd run off. He hadn't even really been particularly useful or loyal. All this time, he'd only been watching out for himself, not collecting supplies for the group when they went into stores, not really watching anyone else's back. Brady and Levi got killed within feet of him, and Glenn had done nothing to save them.

"I don't know about that. All I did was get lugged around by you guys and almost got myself killed the one time I managed to escape," Glenn disagreed, shaking his head. "And I got half of your group killed," he grimaced.

"You proved yourself very handy with a bat. The only guys who died in your presence were assholes who got themselves killed. We're better off without 'em too, so you did us a favor if you did get them killed," Merle countered, "and you're really fuckin' loyal, whether you realize it or not. More loyal than I'd be; that's for sure. To tackle a man with a gun just to save a guy who kidnapped you... You got the morals of a saint, boy."

Glenn looked down at his feet and laughed. He hadn't even thought about that. It wasn't like he chose to throw himself toward Lawrence in order to save Merle and Daryl. He'd just done it. He didn't have time to think of what he should do, or what would be the right thing to do. He'd just done it.

"What we're gettin' at," Merle continued, "is we're offerin' to let you stay with us. An' not just out of charity. We'd be glad to have you, an' for once, I actually mean it."

Glenn glanced toward Daryl.

"You don't have to say yes," Daryl reminded him. "No pressure. If you want to go, we won't stop you. But remember, Merle don't often offer to let people join our group. We wouldn't 'a asked if we didn't mean it."

"There ain't usually much room in our little group. However, we got three positions that recently have become vacated." Merle grinned over toward Glenn and winked.

Glenn grimaced, but couldn't help the dry laugh that came from his own mouth.

Daryl laughed as well.

"Before I answer, I've got a couple questions for you guys," Glenn spoke carefully. "I know you could just lie... but I'll ask you to be truthful."

"Go ahead." Merle glanced toward him and then back at the road as he continued driving onward.

"Well," Glenn began, thinking of the several aspects of each of the Dixon brothers' characters that caused him concern. "Merle... Can you give me your word that you won't play any sort of games involving shooting at my feet or acting like I'm going to be thrown off a roof?"

Merle laughed a raspy chuckle. "That was before I knew you, Glenn. Threatening to shoot people or throw them to their deaths is a game reserved for strangers an' people I don't like. You'll notice as soon as you started growin' on me, that I didn't do anything like that anymore."

"And if you get frustrated with me, don't shoot me or throw me to a herd of walkers." Glenn frowned over at the older man. "If we have any sort of disagreement, please come talk to me before choosing to kill me for it."

"I don't think we'll disagree like Levi or Lawrence and I did, Glenn." Merle laughed.

"Alright..." Glenn turned toward Daryl. "If I get bitten... Please don't shoot me in the forehead with your crossbow." Daryl hadn't really done much to scare Glenn, but the way he'd put Levi 'out of his misery' had been so cold.

"I'd wanted to do that to Levi long before he got bitten." Daryl frowned. "I'd like to think I'd be a little more respectful if it were someone I actually liked. You get bitten, an' I'll ask you what you want. I wouldn't jus' shoot you."

"Okay." Glenn nodded. He hoped he'd never have to deal with that though.

"So, what do you say, Chinaman?" Daryl looked in his direction. "You want one of the open spots in our group?"

Glenn hesitated. He'd never expected to actually trust Merle and Daryl enough to agree to stay with them. However, the two men had surprisingly shown that they might just be good people after all, regardless of the fact that they were both a little rough around the edges. "As long as I don't get let go the same way the others did." Glenn raised his eyebrows and looked toward Merle.

Merle chuckled and clapped Glenn's shoulder. "I like you, boy. I think you got a little bit of a twisted sense of humor somewhere deep down in that kind little heart of yours."

"Well, don't let Merle rub off on ya too much," Daryl spoke up. "There's plenty of room in this group for a little morality."

"So is that a yes then?" Merle asked. "You gonna stay with us, Glenn?"

Glenn looked over to Merle and remembered when the man had asked him the same question two days prior. The last time he'd asked, it had been more of a threat than a question. The last time Merle asked him if he wanted to stay, it was heavily implied that any answer other than yes would result in Glenn being thrown off a roof. But this time was different. It was a genuine question this time, and this time, Glenn could offer a genuine answer, without any fear.

"Yes," he answered.

Merle grinned toward him before looking back at the road. "Never thought I'd be inviting a Chinese kid to my house."

"Me either." Daryl laughed. "Woudn't say our world was ever really very racially diverse."

"I'm Korean," Glenn informed them.

"Whatever," both Dixon brothers mumbled at once.

Glenn shook his head and rolled his eyes. His new acquaintances were far from perfect, but already, within two days, he'd witnessed each of them grow into a better man than they were when he'd met them, or at least, they now seemed more reasonable than they had upon Glenn's first impression of them, and he had literally all the time in the world to help them grow even more.

He considered this an adventure. While Daryl and Merle claimed they hadn't really ever had much diversity in their lives, Glenn really couldn't claim to be much different in that regard. He didn't really have much experience with people who lived out in the country and behaved like these two. It was going to be a hell of a learning experience for all three of them, and he actually found himself looking forward to it.

xxxxxx


End file.
